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THOMAS STAER KING. 



A TRIBUTE 



THOMAS STARE KING. 



RICHARD FROTHING HAM. 




BOSTON: 

TICKNOR AND FIELDS. 

1865. 



C&iw 2* 



•KsF? 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by 

KICHAED FROTHINGHAM, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



By Hxohangfe 
American University 
Jan, IB 1929 



boston: 
electrottped and feinted by john wilson and son, 

No. 5, Water Street. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The Inner Nature 7 

The Early Consecration 17 

The Preparation . . . * 37 

Faith and Philosophy in Youth 57 

The Beginning of his Ministry 77 

Eleven Years of his Ministry 106 

A Month of Interval 155 

Eour Years in California . . : 178 

The Closing Scene 217 

Appendix 233 



THE INNER NATURE. 




0-DAY is the fourth of March : sad 
news will go over the wires to-day." 
Thus spoke Thomas Starr King, 
at San Francisco, at about eight o'clock in the 
morning ; and, a few minutes later, he was 
dead. As the intelligence spread through the 
city, there was sorrow on all faces. Unusual 
stillness was in the marts of trade. Public 
business was suspended. The courts and the 
Legislature were adjourned. The national flag 
was everywhere set at half-mast. The city was 
in mourning. "A Christian minister," — it 
was said from the bench, — "a Christian pa- 
triot, has fallen. Tears will fall for him in the 
homes of poverty and distress ; they will dim 

17] 



8 THOMAS STARR KING. 

the eyes of brave soldiers from the Mississippi 
to the Potomac ; and good men and true men 
all over our land, made better and truer by his 
great, brave, and lucid thoughts and his burn- 
ing eloquence, will weep for him as for a 
brother."* And this was seen as the tidings 
of the calamity went over the wires and through 
the land. It expressed the general sense of 
a great public loss, and the wide feeling that 
one of uncommon work and gifts had gone to 
his reward. A proud New -England inspira- 
tion lifted the thought of the Pacific mourners 
to a view of the cheering side of the Provi- 
dence, in words of solemn joy and triumph : — 

" Mingle, bells ! along the Western slope, 
With your deep toll a sound of faith and hope ; 
Wave cheerily still, O banner! half-way down, 
From thousand-masted bay and steepled town ; 
Let the strong organ with its loftiest swell 
Lift the proud sorrow of the land, and tell 
That the brave sower saw his ripened grain." 

The beauty of Israel had fallen on the high 
places. For him, however, there could be no 
mourning. The early vow had been faithfully 

* Judge Blake, of San Francisco. 



THE INNER NATURE. 9 

kept. The good fight had been fought. The 
.servant, "happy, trustful, resigned," had risen 
in sublime triumph to meet the Master. 

The closing scene made the crowning of a 
beautiful life, on which the old and the young, 
the unlettered and the learned, may find it 
useful to ponder. It has called forth heartfelt 
tributes. It is a theme worthy to be handled 
by genius and learning. When the time comes 
for the calm and complete record, it will need 
but a narrative of high aims, heroic struggles, 
and solid triumphs, to make a thing of joy for 
ever. Being dead, Starr King still speaks. 
As he moved along on the earth, practising 
the virtues and achieving the work that will 
keep his memory green, his immediate object 
was very simple. He strove to keep himself 
unspotted. He aimed for the Christian heights. 
He consecrated, even in youth, the powers with 
which the Almighty had endowed him, to the 
good of his fellow- men. He early grasped 
? a glorious faith and a noble philosophy," 
which were to him inspiration and protection. 
This morning consecration, with the inner 



10 THOMAS STARR KIXG. 

spring of fidelity to duty working under every 
outward phase and ever triumphant, is the key 
of this remarkable life. 

Thomas Stake Kixg was a son of Thomas 
Farrington King, of English descent, and of 
Susan Starr, of German descent. Her father's 
name was Thomas Starr. Both families resided 
in the city of New York. The father of Stan- 
was rather above the medium height, quick and 
vivacious in his movements, full of humor, 
with a sympathetic nature, uncommon imitative 
powers, noble generosity of soul, and of fine 
social qualities. He was a Universalist clergy- 
man ; and, much as he loved the order in the 
fellowship of which he passed his life, his theo- 
logical views widened out beyond the bounds 
of sect or creed. In the classification of the 
day, he sympathized with the Restorationists. 
He was distinguished for a fervent and apostolic 
delivery, and rendered hymns •with marked 
unction and effect. The Starr Family have 
manifested uncommon intellectual power ; and, 
whatever there may be in this case of inherited 



THE INNER NATURE. 11 

influence, the subject of this tribute may be said 
to have had from his father his geniality, and 
from his mother his intellectual traits. 

Starr, as he was familiarly called, was born 
in the city of New York, Dec. 17, 1824. His 
father was preaching on a circuit in Connec- 
ticut, and lived in Norwalk; and his mother 
was then on a visit to her family. When about 
five weeks old, the mother, with the child, 
returned to Norwalk. In the following spring, 
the father settled in Hudson, N. Y., where, 
located amidst the scenery of this noble river, 
the family remained four years. The pastor 
then (1828), leaving a wide circle of friends, 
removed to Portsmouth, N". H., to take the 
charge of a larger society ; where Starr spent 
the next six years of his boyhood, inhaling 
New England's hardy influences. While here, 
he was sent to a private school kept by Mr. 
Harris, where, beside learning the rudiments 
of knowledge, he became, for one of his age, 
a good Latin and French scholar; and the 
pupil ever spoke in grateful terms of good 
Master Harris's faithful drilling in the Latin 



12 THOMAS STARE KIXG. 

Grammar. "Starr, what are you going to 
make ? " a clergyman one day asked him while 
living here ; and the quick-spoken reply was, 
"Don't know: something pretty smart." An- 
other thing is told of him of a different cast. 
At the dinner-table, when his father asked the 
customary blessing, Starr habitually sat with 
folded hands and closed eyes ; and at the end 
said, "Amen." While living at Hudson, he, 
with other children, was dining at the table of 
an Episcopal clergyman, who was so struck 
with this manner and response, that he spoke 
of it to the mother. This practice was con- 
tinued at Portsmouth. "Starr," his mother 
says, "for years always said f Amen' at grace." 
Because this was taken up of his own accord, 
and grew into a habit, it may be looked upon 
as an unconscious reaching forth of the inner 
nature to the Spirit. The child, like Samuel 
of old, "grew on, and was in favor with the 
Lord, and also with men." 

The father, in 1835, removed to Charles- 
town, Mass., to be the pastor of the large 
Universalist society there. Starr was sent to 



THE INNER NATURE. 13 

the Bunker-hill Grammar School, of which Mr. 
William D. Swan, recently a member of the 
Massachusetts Senate, was the principal, who 
well recollects the fire of his declamation of 
the passage beginning, " Sink or swim, live or 
die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my 
heart to this vote" for independence, which 
Daniel Webster put into the mouth of John 
Adams. On a change of residence, Starr was 
sent to the Winthrop School, of which Mr. 
Joshua Bates was the principal. There being 
no high school in the town, the committee 
made an arrangement with Mr. Bates to 
attend, out of school -hours, to a class who 
were fitting for college ; and Starr was one of 
this class. His teacher writes, "I well remem- 
ber the first entrance of that interesting boy, 
Thomas Starr King, under my charge ; his 
gentleness of manner, his beaming eye, his 
expressive face. His mind grasped, and com- 
prehended with wonderful acumen, every sub- 
ject presented to his consideration." As a 
scholar, he took the foremost rank in his class. 
His recitations conveyed the impression of 



H THOMAS STABR KIXG. 

maturity far beyond his years. His compo- 
sitions evinced great vigor of thought, and 
method of treatment ; and one of them, on 
the character of Washington, first written in 
English, and then translated into Latin, was 
exhibited by his teacher to two distinguished 
scholars, who pronounced it to be a remarkable 
production for one so young. His declamation 
was impressive and graceful. " The chief and 
distinguishing characteristic," Mr. Bates says, 
"of his school-life, consisted in his sincerity, 
purity of heart, honesty of purpose, and uni- 
form gentlemanly deportment. I can call to 
remembrance no act or word in his school-days 
to censure or disapprove. Always cheerful, 
industrious, and conscientious, he left no duty 
unperformed, but lived up to all the require- 
ments of the school-room with the most scru- 
pulous exactness." 

While Starr was reading Virgil and Cicero, 
and earning this tribute, his father was labor- 
ing under a deep-seated disease, and was in 
straitened pecuniary circumstances. Starr was 
placed in a dry -goods store in Charlestown 



TEE INNER NATURE. 15 

(an arrangement designed to be but tempo- 
rary), where, among other duties, he kept the 
books. He had taken final leave of school. 
He was now a bright-eyed, vivacious, lovable 
lad, of slender, form, golden hair, ruddy com- 
plexion, winning ways, and of quick perception ; 
uncommonly mirthful, and as fond of books 
as he was of fun ; in a word, having the usual 
marks of a precocious youth, without erratic or 
roving ways. He was a regular attendant at 
the Sunday school. The father saw, with all 
a parent's pride, the unfolding powers of his 
gifted son, and designed for him a collegiate 
course. Thus early Starr looked forward to be 
a minister of the gospel ; indeed, his mother 
cannot recollect when he did not talk of it : so 
that he grew up with this as his plan for life.. 
When he was about thirteen years of age, while 
his father was on a visit to the West, he pre- 
pared a sermon, which he sent to the editor of 
the " Christian Freeman ; " and it appeared in 
.that paper. Starr did not, subsequently, look 
back with satisfaction on this affair ; but it 
is interesting as a manifestation of his inner 
nature. 



16 THOMAS STARR KING. 

" The life of Mr. King," one of his teachers 
says, "from early youth to the grave, was 
always sincere, pure, enthusiastic. His earnest 
nature, his glorious aspirations, his love of the 
true -and the beautiful, his honesty of heart in 
all he said and did, gave a peculiar charm to 
his eventful life. He constantly exemplified, 
in all he did, that principle and moral thought- 
fulness were the controlling motives of ac- 
tion."* 

* A communication from Mr. Bates, on the school-days of Mr. 
King, will be found in the Appendix. 




THE EARLY CONSECRATION. 



||^pp|pHILE Starr was selling dry -goods, 
a radiant death (September, 1839) 
ended the sufferings and the labors of 



his father, at the age of forty-two. A sponta- 
neous closing of the places of business, an im- 
pressive service in the church, a great funeral 
procession, and a gathering of thousands on the 
ancient burial-mound of Charlestown, testified 
to the general affection and respect that bore 
the sacred remains to their resting-place. On 
the evening of the day of this scene, a young 
man, a stranger in the place, occupied the 
vacant pulpit, and discoursed on faith ; and, 
as the church was draped in mourning for the 
recent bereavement, the lesson was enforced 
2 [171 



18 THOMAS STARR KING. 

with uncommon effect. The preacher followed 
his manuscript until near the close of the ser- 
mon, when, summoning the event of the hour 
for illustration, he left his notes, and abandoned 
himself to his theme ; when his deep, rich voice 
was full of emotion, and had a pathos and 
power which thrilled the great and breathless 
assembly. It was eloquence ; for it was in- 
spiration of soul. The preacher was Edwin 
H. Chapin, who became the successor of the 
deceased pastor, and the close, life-long friend 
of Thomas Starr King. 

Starr remained in business pursuits ; and he 
now began to appropriate his earnings to the 
support of the family, which continued in a 
greater or less degree through life. Thus, at 
fifteen, he became the main stay of his mother, 
and acted as a father to the five younger 
children. Here is seen the practice of a filial 
and fraternal piety, which, like a "gem of 
purest ray serene," gilds his whole career. 
He ever performed the duties required of him 
in a prompt and faithful manner, aiming to do 
his best, as though it was not a small matter, 



THE EARLY CONSECRATION. 19 

but an important tiling, to be useful. None, 
at the time, spoke more enthusiastically of his 
intellectual gifts, and none to-day talk more 
lovingly of his memory, than they who saw 
him daily in business. He won the warm com- 
mendation of his employer. He now bore a 
leading part in the formation of a circle of 
young men, of his own age, for mutual im- 
provement by debates, declamations, and dra- 
matic readings. Brutus was one of the parts 
which he took. He was the life of this circle, 
which continued for about two years ; and the 
preparation for these exercises was a valuable 
discipline. On its dissolution, he engaged, with 
one of its members, in a written controversy, 
on the condition of the wicked after death, 
which was quite elaborate. "All the members 
loved him," one of them says. He sought 
books eagerly at this period ; his communings 
were with the great masters of thought ; and, 
as he mused, the fire burned. Nor were his 
musings aimless ; for his efforts were never 
turned from self-culture, nor his thoughts from 
his mission. 



20 THOMAS STARR KIXG. 

It happened that some of the members of 
the Charlestown School Committee knew the 
turn of Starr's mind and the circumstances of 
his family ; and by their influence he was ap- 
pointed (Dec. 6, 1840) an assistant teacher in 
the Bunker-Hill Grammar School, — which he 
had first entered as a pupil. "When he was 
informed of this by members of the committee, 
he said, with a modesty that was characteristic, 
" I am sorry I am not better qualified for the 
place." The principal of this school was Mr. 
Benjamin F. Tweed, now one of the professors 
of Tufts College, who became a life-long friend 
of Starr. He entered upon his new vocation 
with a light heart ; and he soon lived down 
whatever doubts were felt in the community as 
to the good judgment exercised by the School 
Committee in the selection of a youth not six- 
teen. 

Starr was placed in charge of a separate 
room. The quick-judging minds of the pupils 
recognized the presence of superior intellect in 
the clearness, simplicity, and readiness of the 
explanations which the recitations required ; and 



TEE EARLY CONSECRATION. 21 

they saw, that, young as he was, he brought 
to his tasks abundant resources. He aimed to 
do his work well. He aimed to do his best 
here, as he had done in business. And a 
beautiful outside reputation of boy-character 
and fame came to his aid, as he was talked 
about in families. It also went round among 
the pupils that he had been the foremost scholar 
in the Winthrop School, and that he knew seve- 
ral languages. There was no bad conduct that 
could be brought up against him to counteract 
this. He had influence with his pupils, and 
his fidelity to his task was rewarded with suc- 
cess. " I have succeeded," he says, w as well 
as I expected with the school ; but it is hard 
work." 

While his calling now aided in his work of 
discipline, his time out of school was mainly 
devoted to study. He applied himself to the 
languages. An instance, showing the steady 
bent of his mind for the ministry, is seen in the 
questions which he put to a phrenologist at this 
time. The subject was now attracting unusual 
attention, and it was characteristic in the young 



/ 



22 THOMAS STARR KINO. 

teacher to look into it. A zealous disciple 
(Mr. O. S. Fowler) was lecturing in Boston, 
and examining heads. Starr called upon him, 
was examined, and got a pamphlet containing 
a description of the organs, with the size of 
each of his own indicated in figures. In a 
letter (May 27, 1841), he gives the result of 
his examination, which may serve two turns, — 
a contribution to science, and an illustration of 
character : — 

"About two or three weeks since, I called 
on O. S. Fowler, the phrenologist ! and such a 
head as he gave me ! My stars ! After detail- 
ing the size of the organs, he told me I should 
enter a profession, and advised me by all means 
to study for the law. He inferred that this 
would be more congenial to my feelings, from 
the smallness of conscientiousness and venera- 
tion, and the preponderance of combativeness 
and destructiveness, with large causality and 
hope. As you may imagine, I did not consider 
this announcement a very flattering compliment 
to my moral faculties. I therefore popped the 
question to the gentleman, How I was qualified 



THE EARLY CONSECRATION. 23 

for the ministry; — to which he replied by 
laughing ! (think of it !) telling me that this 
profession was out of the question, since I was 
by no means serious ; and a lack of veneration 
would be a sad defect. A gentleman who went 
with me inquired as to the doctrine I would 
preach. f Why,' said Fowler, f thorough-going 
Universalist.' But he told me I would be a 
very eloquent speaker, whatever profession I 
might choose ; and assured me that I would 
one day become an author ! He said there was 
no doubt of that ; and finally advised me to 
cultivate conscientiousness and bodily health ; 
said I had a strong constitution, but thought it 
would break when I arrived at the age of 
twenty years." 

This letter is signed "T. Starr King, the 
eloquent speaker and (is to be) author." 

At seventeen, he read metaphysics with the 
avidity and relish with which most young peo- 
ple read sensation novels ; handling abstruse 
problems as though it were but play to do it. 
Professor Tweed, writing of this period of his 
life, and of his love of metaphysics, says, "Pie 



24 THOMAS STARR KING. 

would read what seemed to me an involved 
and obscure passage from Kant with a f TThat 
do you think of that?' and when I began to 
scowl, and express a doubt whether I perfectly 
understood it, he would instantly state it in 
terms which rendered it as clear as daylight. 
The fact is, he was not a hard student : he 
was incapable of hard study. The most ab- 
struse problems furnished him only with intel- 
lectual play. He had a natural affinity for 
knowledge. Its acquisition was not labor, but 
a delight." He loved to talk and to write on, 
to most minds, the forbidding theme of meta- 
physics. An illustration is seen in a long, off- 
hand letter which he addressed (Xov. 3, 1842) 
to a friend in New York, who informed him 
of his purpose to enter upon a course of philo- 
sophical reading. After a strain of humorous 
matter, he gives an elaborate statement of the 
different schools of philosophy : — 

" If I can assist you in any manner during 
your f nights of prayer and devotion,' I shall be 
most happy. I have just vanity enough, more- 
over, to believe that I can. You intend com- 



THE EARLY CONS ECU ATI ON. 25 

mencing a course of philosophical studies this 
winter. That's right. Hurrah ! How funny to 
write to you as a brother abstractionist ! Well, 
you should first make up your mind to what 
course of philosophical reading you will devote 
your time, moral or intellectual. However, 
whether you engage in one or the other, you 
will need some reading in metaphysics, and 
will desire to become acquainted with all the 
possible forms of mental philosophy. There is 
the sensual school, as it is termed, who contend 
that all knowledge is derived solely through the 
medium of the senses. They view mind as 
merely material effect , derived from, dependent 
upon, and dying with, the bodily organization. 
This philosophy, for various and obvious rea- 
sons, has been the first which has been evolved 
from the philosophical genius of every people. 
It appeared first in India ; and, after reflection 
was awakened in Greece, was developed, prior 
to any other system, by the Ionian school. You 
will desire to become acquainted with the 
writings and ideas of this school. It is the 
philosophy of the atheists, but is also held 



26 THOMAS STARR KING. 

by many Christians, who turn its keen edge by 
the revelations of the Bible, relying on that 
for proof of the soul's future existence. In 
modem times, it has been systematically de- 
fended by the French atheists, who drew it 
from the famous John Locke. You will proba- 
bly need to be acquainted with his work on the 
Human Understanding ; though you might as 
well try to read a dictionary through for plea- 
sure as his work. Among all nations where 
philosophy has been cultivated, you will find, 
that in opposition to the sensualists, or philoso- 
phers of sensation, there have arisen idealists. 
Unsatisfied with the theory of the former as 
to the origin of human knowledge, they have 
shown that all knowledge is not and cannot be 
derived from sensation and through the senses. 
Man has many ideas, and those the most essential, 
which the senses cannot reveal ; nay, without 
which experience itself would be impossible. 
Such a philosopher was Plato, the purest and 
best idealist, perhaps, of any age. In modem 
times, the idealism prevalent can be traced to 
the great German, Kant, who, in his immortal 



TEE EARLY CONSECRATION. 27 

work, ' Critique of Pure Reason,' establishes 
beyond any question the impossibility of ex- 
plaining all knowledge by experience and sen- 
sations, and even gives us the list of those 
ideas which man obtains through some other 
medium. This medium, he contends, is pure 
reason. Sensation may furnish the grounds 
of knowledge. It is by occasion of experience 
that man knows ; but man does not derive 
all knowledge from sensation and experience. 
Reason itself is a primary source of ideas. 
You will observe that the sensual school give 
to reason only the power of drawing and fram- 
ing new ideas from the stock already furnished 
by sensation. Kant and the idealists contend 
that it (reason) gives new ones, which are not 
contained in those of sensation, which the 
senses cannot furnish. Reason reveals univer- 
sal truths, propositions applicable to all times 
and every possible condition ; while the senses 
can only make us acquainted with what is now, 
not with that which must be. The ? Critique of 
Pure Reason ' of Kant has not been rendered 
into any readable English version. All that, 



28 THOMAS STARR KING. 

for the present, you may care to know of it, 
may be found in the * Psychology' of Cousin, 
Henry's translation. Cousin is the most lumi- 
nous metaphysical writer you can read. His 
positions are clear ; his language not to be mis- 
understood ; his reasoning acute, logical, con- 
vincing. First of any other, I would advise 
you to read his work. It is in refutation of 
Locke and the sensual school, and was the in- 
strument, with his other lectures, of reforming 
thoroughly the philosophical studies of France. 
His important arguments are borrowed from 
Kant, but clothed in a style far more simple 
and interesting than that of the great abstrac- 
tionist. The philosophy of Cousin, understood 
as eclecticism, is now the philosophy of France 
and of the greatest men in- this countiy. 
Brownson objects to some of his theories, but 
not probably to any of his reasonings, in his 
1 Psychology.' By a careful perusal of Cousin's 
work, you will get a good knowledge of the 
sensual school, its weak points, the best method 
of refuting them, and a list of the ideas which 
every human being has which cannot come from 



TEE EABLY CONSECRATION. 29 

the senses. The criticism on Locke's account 
of the origin of space, time, the Infinite, &c, 
is the finest piece of logic I ever read. It will 
bear to be rused and jperused, as Father Bayner 
says, and never weary you. Piatt probably 
has it, or your library. There is also the scep- 
tical school of philosophy. Its followers be- 
lieve that nothing can be proved ; nothing is 
certain. Life is short, sense is difficult, intel- 
lect is weak. They think nothing can be 
proved, because we know not whether our fac- 
ulties are veracious, and reveal things as they 
are. Life may be one continual dream. We 
are so constituted, that we are compelled to 
think and believe as we do believe, without the 
power of proving that our thoughts and knowl- 
edge are real. The greatest expounder of the 
doctrines of this school has been David Hume, 
the Scotchman, in his ? Essays.' It was in refu- 
tation of this work that Kant arose in his might. 
The sceptical school is the legitimate conse- 
quence of the sensual school, and has always 
followed in its train. Thus Hume builds his 
scepticism on the principles of Locke ; and, 



30 THOMAS STABB KING. 

when Kant and Cousin demonstrated the false- 
ness of the form-:, see] rieisra, of course, fell 
with it. The fourth great school of philosophy 
is the mystical school, a pretty fair exposition 
of whose doctrines you may hear in every true- 
blue Calvinistic sermon. For them, human 
reason is weak, delusive, deceptive. It is no 
safe guide. Earth and its pleasures are all 
vanity, human life a miserable routine, and 
all action folly. * Hence they abandon them- 
selves to pious contemplation : endeavoring to 
become lost, as it were, in the Deity, and 
seeking truth in a contemplation of his essence 
by a sort of inspiration. This philosophv is 
founded on a low view of man and his powers, 
and will not be likely to triumph in these davs 
of steam-engines, Universalism, and theatres, 
as the present prospects of pure Orthodoxy will 
testify. Out from these great systems of intel- 
lectual philosophy have sprung corresponding 
theories of moral philosophy, a sketch of which, 
as room fails me in this letter. I will give vou 
at some future time, if agreeable. I forgot to 
say any thing to you of the Browns onian system 



TEE EARLY CONSECRATION. 31 

of philosophy, partly because I am not very 
well acquainted with it, and partly because you 
can become familiar with it through the f Demo- 
cratic Review.' I know not what to make of 
his theory of subjective and objective life. It 
seems to me that it is the old idea, that cir- 
cumstances influence our character ; for circum- 
stances would be classed by Brownson as the 
objective. But it also seems to me that he 
does not give sufficient power to the subjective, 
or man. Man, no doubt, is influenced by cir- 
cumstances ; that is, by society and existing 
institutions. But man is not made by circum- 
stances. He can re-act upon them, and govern 
them somewhat. Otherwise, where is account- 
ability? If man cannot govern circumstances, 
if he is not free in a certain sense, why punish 
him ? Charge his crimes or delinquencies to the 
objective, not to him. He is not accountable. 
Reform him ; strive to modify and improve 
as much as possible the existing institutions of 
their times. But how? How can there be a 
reformer? If, as Brownson says, men and 
their institutions are the objective for posterity, 



32 THOMAS STARR KINO. 

and if this posterity are formed spiritually by 
this objective, and cannot rise above it, every 
poet, every reformer, every man greater than 
his age, must be literally inspired. But who 
can believe such a doctrine as this ? I prefer 
to believe that the premises are too exclusive 
to accepting the conclusions. Neither do I 
see in Christ, as he describes him, all that he 
contends is there. — But I will not torture you 
any longer with this at present. Though we 
can accept, with some modifications, his theory 
of subjective and objective life, still Channing's 
view of man to me is far more interesting and 
more consistent. I prefer to believe that man 
has within him 'elements of the Divinity/ 
which can be called forth, and which, by being 
developed, constitute man's progress and glory, 
to accepting the doctrine, that man by nature is 
alien from God, does not naturally aspire, and 
must be first stirred and then led on by the 
Divinity in all his progress. I prefer Chan- 
ning's position, that human nature must be 
assumed infallible somewhere, than to subscribe 
to Brownson's notion, that man must not be- 



THE EARLY CONSECRATION. 33 

lieve Christianity, because Christianity is in 
harmony with reason and his nature, but must 
yield implicit faith to it . for — I know not 
what. 

" Let me know how you prosper in philoso- 
phy. Perhaps, in future letters, I will bore 
you with some of the ideas of Plato. By the 
way, Cousin advises all young students like us 
to become acquainted with Grecian philosophy ; 
a task to which I have been devoting myself 
for some little time. A very common work you 
can obtain, probably, called Enfield's f Philoso- 
phy.' It is merely a statement of the doctrines 
of the different schools among the Greeks ; not 
good for much, but fit to be read prior to a bet- 
ter. Cousin, in his lectures (in French), un- 
translated, gives a good synopsis of the progress 
of inquiry among them." 

While reading about Grecian philosophy, a 
letter, full of fun, in which there is hardly 
a word about metaphysics, winds off thus : — 

" As soon as I become fully acquainted with 
the principles of the Eleatic school, I shall write 
him [J. H.]. At present, I am perplexed with 
3 



34 THOMAS STARR KING. 

a doubt whether there be an impossibility in an 
original multiplicity of things, on the ground 
that the non-being ,. as the separative of unity, 
is not ; or whether the multiplicity of a self- 
developing vitality cannot be reconciled with 
an all-governing unity, since the perfect cannot 
be subject to change. With regard to Pytha- 
goras, I have become convinced that an indi- 
vidual number can only arise by a separation 
from the mass of units which originally were 
held together by the primal number ; and, as 
this separation implies the existence of a void, 
the determimate must logically become, by op- 
position to the interval, the limit. You may 
not be surprised to learn that I talk of writing 
a book." 

While thus early he could grasp and grow 
on the profound problems, or could harmlessly 
play with the nets and the nonsense, of meta- 
physics, his spiritual side was strengthened and 
developed by communion with religious natures. 
Only those who heard him talk can tell what a 
ministry to his spirit was the affluence of utter- 
ance and companionship of his beloved pastor. 



THE EARLY CONSECRATION. 35 

He ever retained for Dr. Chapin a warm affec- 
tion. On being called on, at a festival in 
Faneuil Hall, to respond to a sentiment in 
honor of absent friends, Mr. King thus re- 
ferred to him : " What can be said fitly, by any 
single speaker, when we come to another name 
that is in all your minds ? What can be said, 
that is competent, of E. H. Chapin, — God 
bless him ! Call upon the band to respond with 
all its instruments, if you would do proper honor 
to him, and to the feeling of this assembly for 
him. Nay, sir, some great organ should be 
wakened in answer to his name. Let a master 
draw the diapason, and open the pedal of the 
great leviathan of music, and he cannot let 
loose such a thrilling surge of passion as has 
swept this hall when Chapin has poured from 
his breast stormy denunciations of injustice, and 
fervid prophecies of future good ; and then let 
him draw the sweetest flute-stop, and he cannot 
pour out melody so pleading and pathetic as the 
Holy Spirit breathes through the tender, sunny, 
and melting tones in which Chapin portrays 
and illustrates the infinite love." 



36 THOMAS STABB KINO. 

His letters now indicate his theological bias. 
"I enjoyed," he writes, "a rich conversation 
with Bro. Chapin on philosophy and religion." 
Of one of his sermons, Starr says, "It was 
devoted to an illustration of the difference be- 
tween an atheistical and Christian reformer. 
At the close, Channing was mentioned in a 
touching and beautiful manner." Starr was 
a child of enthusiasm ; and his feelings as to 
the great divine, then just departed, are seen in 
the words, " Channing ! — all the eulogies that 
have been pronounced on him throughout the 
land cannot do justice to him." He also shared 
with his pastor in his admiration of Martineau, 
and would delight to point out and linger on 
rich passages in his utterances. On his return 
from visits to New York, he would talk in 
glowing terms of the eloquence of Dr. Dewey. 
He had a hospitable mind, and was as generous 
in acknowledgments as he was eager in recep- 
tivity. 



THE PREPARATION. 




TARR'S real life may be said to have 
been rather in his ideas, his feelings, 
and his studies, than in outward things, 
well as he discharged his daily duties, and much 
as he enjoyed society. At eighteen, he began 
the special preparation which he considered 
essential -in order to be a preacher of the 
gospel. 

While an assistant teacher in the Grammar 
School, Starr proposed to a few members of 
the Debating Association before named to attend 
regularly the usual monthly Sunday-evening 
lectures in town, and, without taking notes, to 
write out as much of the sermon as each could 
remember, and then compare each other's man- 

[37] 



38 THOMAS STABB KINO. 

uscripts. One of them fell into the proposal, 
and, with Starr, continued the practice for an 
entire winter. " Starr," he says, " used to get 
by far the most of the sermon." Towards the 
last, they procured the manuscript of one of 
the sermons they had thus endeavored to write 
out; and Starr had taken nearly the whole 
of it. 

His letters indicate his love of religious liter- 
ature. His words on Channing, already cited, 
show his estimate of this divine : he was familiar 
with his utterances, and had imbibed their spir- 
it ; indeed, he was ever quick to know things of 
note in theology; and, as soon as they appeared, 
he would have them in hand, either from the 
choice storehouse of his pastor or from else- 
where ; for neither Chapin nor King would 
sleep without knowing the last word from a real 
teacher. He now attended the lectures deliv- 
ered by Professor James Walker, of Harvard 
College, at the Lowell Institute. The lecturer 
had been formerly the pastor of the Unitarian 
Society in Charlestown twenty-one years ; but, 
resigning this charge about the time Starr's 



THE PREPARATION. 39. 

father died, he removed to Cambridge, and did 
not meet Starr while he lived in Charlestown. 
Starr's attendance on these lectures is termed 
by Professor Tweed, who shared his confidential 
counsels, an era in his life. 

In a letter to his aunt in New- York, Feb. 
22, 1842, he refers, among other things, to 
these lectures : — 

w I am keeping yet at the same school, and 
like as usual. There has been a strong effort 
made this winter to set off that part of the town 
above the Canal Bridge as a separate village, 
to be called Somerville. Two very serious 
evils would result from this, which, if the town 
takes seriously into account, would, no doubt, 
determine them not to divide. . In the first 

place, we should lose Old as a citizen ,• 

and, secondly, an incalculable injury would be 
experienced by the urchins around these parts, 
in the loss of my services as teacher, since 
they would no longer be needed, on account 
of the small number of ^?*p-ils which would 
be left, if the proposed separation should be 
effected. 



40 THOMAS STARE KING. 

"Rev. E. H. C. ia doing a good business 
yet. Society full. He has preached some 
gospel sermons, lately, on the revivals of the 
day. TThat are you New- Yorkers doing in the 
way of saving souls ? Oh ! if your benighted 
region could have the savins: influence of Bro. 
Knapp for a season ! I know he often thinks 
of his associates in Xew York : for I heard him 
say. not long ago. that, when he sees one of those 
ladies who take pride in dress and show, he 
always thinks of some of those fat oxen which 
the butchers in Xew York trim up with ribbons , 
and drive around the streets for people tc gaze 
at. and afterwards chive to the slaughter-yard, 
and knock their brains out. So it is — said he 
— with these silly woniem The Devil is now 
driving them around, all dressed in finery, 
people to gaze at; but, by and by, he'll scrape 
them into hell to everlasting damnation ! Sell 
thy jewels ! 

"I have enjoyed a rich treat this season in 
attending Dr. Walker's lectures on natural reli- 
gion, before the Lowell Institute. It is our 
Charlestown Di\ Walker. But he never spoke 



THE PREPARATION. 41 

half so well as he has in delivering these lec- 
tures. The Ocleon was crowded during the 
whole twelve nights. I took notes of them all. 
So, one of these days, I may enlighten the 
western people upon that subject. There was 
such a demand for tickets, and such a scarcity, 
that I had almost given up all hope of obtain- 
ing one, when I received a letter of introduction 
to the reverend doctor. So out I posted to 
Cambridge, enjoyed a lively conversation with 
the professor (which turned principally on the 
degree of intellect of the oyster, whether it 
reasoned a priori or a posteriori) , and obtained 
two tickets for the course. I have also a ticket 
to Professor Silliman's course on chemistry, 
which commences this evening.'' , 

Before the conclusion of Dr. Walker's lec- 
tures, a vacancy occurred in the West Gram- 
mar School of Medford, a town about three 
miles from Charlestown ; and Starr applied 
for the place, which was the higher and in- 
dependent one of principal. His youth and 
youthful looks suggested doubts as to the expe- 
diency of the selection. A dear friend of his 



42 THOMAS STARR KING. 

father happened to be a member of the School 
Committee of this town, — Rev. Hosea Ballou, 
2d, who was the pastor of the Universalist 
Society here, and became the first president of 
Tufts College. He interested himself for the 
applicant, and Starr was successful. After his 
appointment (Xov. 25, 1842), the family re- 
moved to Medford. Starr soon writes, "I am 
very much pleased with the change, and delight- 
ed with the Medford people;" and he invited his 
friends to view its rural beauties, cool retreats, 
and shady bowers. 

This change seemed to him and his friends 
but the simple question of a wider field of labor 
and larger means of support ; but, viewed in 
the light of after-events, it looks more like 
Providence shaping his ends. Dr. Ballou was 
of childlike simplicity of character, of varied 
and profound learning, wise, good, and great ; 
and, a few weeks after the appointment, he re- 
marked to the writer of this tribute, that, while 
Medford had gained a faithful and competent 
teacher, he had found a rare and precious friend. 
TYTiat love and confidence grew up between 



THE PREPARATION. 43 

these gifted and kindred souls ! and how inter- 
esting it was to see them together ! One of 
silver locks, rich in ancient and modern lore, — 
the other of boyish face, athirst for knowledge, 
and scaling the heights with the scholar's en- 
thusiasm ; and both of wit that was quick, of 
easy .flow, elicited by the commonest things, 
and, diamond -like, sharp and sparkling. Inti- 
mate and sweet was their life-long communion ; 
much in the quiet seclusion of the study, occu- 
pied with great themes, and much among the 
sublimity of the mountains, feeling the grand 
inspiration of Nature ; for both were loving wor- 
shippers at her shrine. Then their views of 
Christ and Christianity were similar. Both 
accepted, in like form, the centralisms of the 
paternity of God and the brotherhood of man ; 
both thought alike of the dignity of human 
nature ; both reached like conclusions as to dis- 
cipline and the great restoration ; both had a 
faith in immortality that rose to the sublime ; 
and both, too, were the subjects of dogmatic 
criticism from good and true men of their own 
denomination, whose minds were not given to 



44 THOMAS STABB KINO. 

philosophy, who measured fidelity to principle 
by devotion to sect, and stood like Cerberus at 
its gates, to warn off intrusion, or to keep up 
interior discipline. The sympathy between the 
two friends was noble. Nothing could exceed 
the admiration which Dr. Ballou habitually ex- 
pressed for the intellectual gifts of his young 
friend ; and no one ever heard from the lips of 
Thomas Starr King aught but love and grati- 
tude for his theological father. The corre- 
spondence between them was rich in the play 
of fancy, and depth of thought. 

Starr, under the counsel of Dr. Ballou, now 
entered upon a systematic course of study, with 
a view to the ministry. He made a grateful 
reference to his long communion with Dr. Bal- 
lou, in a speech at a festival, a year or two 
before he went to California. Rev. A. D. 
Mayo said, on this occasion, " that all the theo- 
logical education he enjoyed was three months' 
study in the library of Dr. Ballou, and that 
such an association with him was enough." Mr. 
King, who followed Mr. Mayo, said, "I have 
been more fortunate. More than three months, 



THE PREPARATION. 45 

more than three years, more than three times 
three years, almost ten times three years, I 
have been receiving influence from that noble 
man ; for I can hardly remember when in child- 
hood I did not look up to that forehead and those 
blue eyes as the expression of a noble Christian 
integrity, wisdom, and purity." 

Starr was also receiving influence from an- 
other teacher. He went regularly into Boston 
to attend Professor Walker's lectures, which 
were listened to by him with absorbing inter- 
est. He took notes of them; and though he did 
not use the short-hand method, yet such was 
his power of memory, that he wrote out in full 
certainly the twelve lectures of the third course, 
for his own use, which, three years later, were 
printed in the "Boston Daily Star." But he 
did far more for himself than this. He made 
the theme of the philosophy of religion his 
study ; he reasoned on the great problems con- 
nected with it ; he examined the authors to 
whom reference had been made in these lec- 
tures ; and he attributed to the direction thus 
given to his mind much fixedness of opinion 



46 THOMAS STARR KING. 

which he attained on vital points of theology. 
Probably this discipline saved him from that 
experience of doubt which many gifted minds 
pass through. 

Professor Tweed gives an interesting relation 
of this season of preparation : " The attendance 
of Mr. King on these lectures was an era in 
his life. I well remember attending the doc- 
tor's first lecture with him, and his return to 
my house after the lecture. Upon some in- 
quiry about it, he began, stated the subject, 
and the whole plan in the order of its develop- 
ment ; using so many of the very expressions of 
the lecturer, that I listened with wonder. It 
seemed like a repetition of the lecture. Very 
soon he commenced writing out each lecture, 
with such fulness and accuracy that it seemed 
like a verbal report. The authors referred to 
and quoted were noted, and their works ob- 
tained and read; so that^the lectures, with the 
reading to which they gave rise, were to him, 
in that department of theology, a whole body 
of divinity. Some ten or twelve years after he 
commenced preaching, he told me he had never 



THE PREPARATION. 47 

been able to write a sermon on a subject treated 
by Dr. Walker. He had tried several times ; 
but, to use his own words, f so exhaustive was 
the doctor's treatment, that he soon found him- 
self transcribing one of his old reports.'" 

His correspondence, at this period, shows 
that his theological views were assuming the 
shape, as to essentials or groundwork, which 
they retained through life. He aimed at fel- 
lowship with all that he regarded as Christianity. 
He was a Unitarian in the distinctive tenet that 
marks this denomination ; he was a Univer- 
salist in the doctrine of the final restoration, 
which gives this sect its name: but he elevated, 
as the standard above the sect or creed, the 
Christian spirit and the Christian life ; and held 
that to be a true apostolic church which would 
receive, through whatever ^creed or doorway, 
the sincere worshipper in spirit and in truth. 
He tried parties in the theological world by 
this standard. "My great ambition in life is," 
he wrote at thirty-five, " to serve the cause of 
Christianity as represented by the noblest souls 
of all the liberal Christian parties." 



48 THOMAS STARR KING. 

His theological tendency is seen in a letter 
addressed to his aunt (March 11, 1843), when 
on a visit to Portsmouth : " We have a fine 
Unitarian preacher there [Medford], Rev. C. 
Stetson, with whom I am intimately acquainted. 
He is a man of solid acquirements, weighing 
some three hundred pounds. I have attended 
his church pretty often since my removal, which 
has occasioned mother some worriment, which 
you may suppose is no way lessened, when I 
tell her, at least twice a week, that I intend 
taking a class in his Sabbath school, and study- 
ing for the Unitarian ministry. What should 
you say, should I inform you such is my inten- 
tion? Really, I believe the Unitarian party, as 
a whole, understand themselves better, and are 
doing a nobler work, than the Universalists. I 

am sick of the miserable dogmatism which meas- 
es 

ures the greatness and worth of every man and 
sect by the openness and clearness with which 
they have avowed the final restoration. Witness 
Whittemore on Channing. Of course, you will 
not construe these remarks to imply any dimi- 
nution of faith on my part in the distinctive 



THE PREPARATION. 49 

tenets of Universalists. I simply believe that 
the Unitarians, as a body, are doing more for 
Liberal Christianity, with all their vagueness 
upon that point, than the Universalists, with 
all their dogmatism. This belief I have felt 
for some time, and it has not been lessened by 
an attendance upon Dr. Walker's lectures this 
winter. I will not say more at this time, as 
you and I will probably have a discussion upon 
this point, ere long, unless you are of the same 
opinion. By the way, I want you to see my 
reports of the above lectures. The course this 
winter has been rich; their subject, the harmony 
of the great doctrines of revelation — God, 
Providence, and immortality — with the teach- 
ings of Nature." In another letter, in April, 
he says, "I have recently commenced the study 
of the German, which you know is an indispen- 
sable accomplishment for a Unitarian clergy- 
man." 

Starr was not fascinated with the views of 
Theodore Parker's " Discourse on Religion," 

which was now making a noise in the theologi- 
es o 

cal world ; for, on its appearance, he subjected 



50 THOMAS STARR KINO. 

it to an analysis and criticism sufficient to es- 
tablish, satisfactorily for himself, its basis to be 
fallacy, and its superstructure to be inconsistent 
and illogical. Indeed, he never looked on the 
views known as " Parkerism " as profoimd, and 
predicted they would be transient. 

At this period, Mr. Parker, while on a 
visit to Medford, met Starr, and (April 13, 
1843) wrote in his diary : " Saw schoolmaster 
Thomas Starr King, — capital fellow, only 
nineteen. Taught school three years. Sup- 
ports his mother. He went into Walker's 
three courses of lectures, and took good notes. 
Reads French, Spanish, Latin, Italian, a little 
Greek, and begins German. He is a good 
listener." This shows the impression which 
this loving and heroic nature made on the 
learned, in personal intercourse, as he listened, 
sifted, and appropriated what he judged was 
good. Starr, this month, went to hear Mr. 
Parker preach, and gives a touch of himself, in 
a letter, dated April 25, 1843, about the ser- 
mon : — 

K On Sunday last, Rev. Theodore Parker 



TEE PREPARATION. 51 

preached in this place. I heard only the after- 
noon sermon. It was a queer performance ; 
his text, ' The fear of the Lord maketh a merry 
heart.' The discourse was intended to show 
the difference between religious principle and 
religious sentiment. Persons whose religion 
belongs to the first category he describes as fol- 
lowing the ordinances of religion merely to sat- 
isfy conscience, because conscience commands. 
Their motto is, The least possible righteousness 
and the greatest possible reward. The first 
time, by the way, I ever heard persons con- 
demned from the pulpit for possessing religious 
principle. Persons of the second class, of reli- 
gious sentiment, are those who follow religion 
for the love of it, because their nature demands 
it : it is the accomplishment of their destiny. 
Persons of this stamp carry their religion in 
their face, always smiling, always cheerful, 
merry-hearted; and, as I belong to this last- 
mentioned class of existences, I am well con- 
tent to reverse the argument, and reason that 
the existence of these signs in the phiz is a 
sufficient indication of the existence of religious 
sentiment in the heart." 



52 THOMAS STABB KING. 

His salary hardly met his wants ; and this 
year he applied for a better situation, which 
offered itself in Roxbury. One of its School 
Board visited Medford, and expressed himself 
much pleased with Starr's school. The result 
was unsuccessful. The "youth alone" pre- 
vented the appointment. In a long letter ad- 
dressed to his aunt at New York, Starr refers 
to this matter, and, after a jocular strain about 
his New- York relatives, remarks thus on him- 
self:— 

" To my sage aunt I present my regards, the 
compliments of the season, and assurances of 
my most distinguished consideration. She may 
clothe the ideas in the most poetic terms the 
dictionary may afford. Let her be reminded, 
by the way, that I have engaged a suit of rooms 
at the Astor House. I hope your mother will 
keep in mind her degenerate descendant. I 
have a great respect for my ancestors ; and, no 
doubt, I shall be stimulated by a generous re- 
spect for them to those efforts which in future 
days will reflect glory upon the family. Biogra- 
phers of the next age will doubtless look back 



THE PREPARATION. 53 

to the progenitors of T. S. K. for influences 
to account for the existence of such a genius, 
and his influence on the age. You had better 
render their work as light as possible by leav- 
ing some slight sketch of the family." 

A short time after this, Charlestown friends 
recommended him to Col. Seth J. Thomas, 
who had just been appointed naval store-keep- 
er, for one of the desks in the office at the 
Navy Yard; and, not without misgivings, Starr 
fell in with the proposal. On calling on Col. 
Thomas, who had not seen him before, Starr 
expressed diffidence as to his ability to perform 
the duties ; but he was assured in the kindest 
way that he would succeed, when he accepted. 
The compensation of the new position promised 
to double his means of support, and to enable 
him to add to his choice collection of books, — 
the ever-welcome and never-complaining com- 
panions which he was lovingly gathering in. 
On sending in his resignation to the Medford 
School Committee (Aug. 1, 1843), they had a 
special examination of his school ; and, their 
records say, " it gave evidence of the fidelity 



54 THOMAS STABS KIXG. 

and energy for which he is so much distin- 
guished." Thus honorably closed a service as 
teacher in the common schools, which he was 
next officially to enter as a member of the Bos- 
ton Committee, with the speciality of super- 
vising the large school in which Ins former 
teacher (Mr. Bates) was and still is the prin- 
cipal. "Xow, sir," Mr. King said to Mr. 
Bates, "I have a chance to pay you off." 

Soon after this appointment, the family of 
StaiT removed to Charlestown, where there was 
for him a deep interest and large love, which 
continued through his life. He lived several 
years in a house on Main Street, near Oak 
Street, and opposite the residence of the writer 
of this tribute, in whose home he was very 
intimate during his residence in Charlestown. 
He was uncommonly buoyant and happy in an 
occupation, which, though not in accordance 
with his tastes, yet, beside placing him in com- 
fortable pecuniary circumstances, afforded him 
leisure hours. He ever recognized a field of 
honor in the practice of the duties of common 
life ; and as he had aimed to do business well 



THE PREPARATION. 55 

and to keep school well, so he tried to be a 
good accountant. He wrote a neat, round, 
clear hand. He made a fine record. His re- 
ports to the department of Bureau and Con- 
struction were well done. He was quick at 
figures. His routine of duty was discharged 
with rare intelligence. The men of business 
having dealings with the office liked him, and 
he was a favorite with the officers of the yard. 
Some of his friends feared that the attractions 
of a government office, or the excitement and 
prizes of politics, might wear upon his resolu- 
tion as to the ministry ; but there was not the 
least danger of it : and it may be s'aid with 
confidence, that this or other fields of labor had 
no attractions for him. While no such idea 
ever took possession of him as that he was born 
to be a prophet, or the founder of a new sect, 
or the spreader of a new dogma, yet he ever 
looked forward to the time when he should be 
a minister of the gospel ; and none ever re- 
garded with greater disfavor than he did an 
unpreparedness of heart and mind for this 
work. 



56 THOMAS STARR KING. 

Professor Tweed continued the Principal of 
the Bunker-Hill School, and was one of Starr's 
intimate associates. He remarks of Starr at 
this time : " It has been said that at this period, 
while teaching and in the Navy Yard, he pur- 
sued an extensive course of study. This is 
true ; but if he had been spoken of at that 
time, among his intimate friends, as a hard 
student, it would have raised a smile. They 
would have said, one who devotes so much 
time to society cannot be called a very close 
student. . But the quickness of his apprehen- 
sion, the retentiveness of his memory, and 
the celerity with which all knowledge was ar- 
ranged and digested, enabled him to accomplish 
the work of years for ordinary minds in as many 
weeks." 




FAITH AND PHILSOPHY IN YOUTH. 




HERE are men who solemnly conse- 
crate themselves to the highest ser- 
vice ; who bind their will to the law 
of right in a vow of marriage whose sanctity is 
ever felt; who, according to their original tem- 
perament, make either the idea of justice, or 
the revealed will of Heaven, or the conception 
of God as the Sovereign or the Father, the back- 
ground of their consciousness : so that, when 
the foreground is taken up by the world, and 
in all seasons when unorganized spirits might 
be in the peril of doing wrong, there is a sacred 
motive ready to start into prominence, if the 
interests of holiness are likely to be betrayed." 
These words of Thomas Starr King outline his 

[57] 



58 THOMAS STARE KING. 

own inner nature, his consecration, his prep- 
aration, his faith, and his philosophy. 

At nineteen, while earning his living by a 
faithful performance of duty, he continued to 
employ profitably his leisure hours ; trimming 
the midnight lamp for study, and aiming to be 
exact and thorough in his acquisitions. In the 
belief that it required training and discipline 
and severe reflection to reach the highest walks 
of theology, as it required them to reach the 
highest walks in any intellectual pursuit, he 
inured himself to habits of patient and untiring 
thought. He gave much attention now to the 
philosophy of history, as treated in the works of 
Guizot and the lectures of Frederick Schlegel. 
Still, he ever recurred to metaphsyics, and was 
accustomed to commend their study to others. 
"Well do I remember," Eev. A. D. Mayo 
remarked in a dinner-speech in Faneuil Hall, 
"that the first day of our youthful acquaint- 
ance he read me into a fit of indigestion and a 
sleepless night, with his Plato and Kant and 
Cousin ; a night whose watchful hours I im- 
proved by maturing the resolution, that, on 






FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY. 59 

my return to my country home, I would begin 
tnose philosophical studies in which he is second 
to no man of his age in our country." In the 
speech which Mr. King made on this occasion, 
he remarked, "Let me say here, that, however 
much interested I may have felt in philosophy 
generally, there is one system, verbally repre- 
sented by one of the names just pronounced, 
which has done so much harm in the religious 
world, that I try to get rid of it, and earnestly 
desire to see all pulpits and meetings utterly 
free from its poison, — the system of cant." 

His letters at this period are mostly in a 
cheerful vein, full of sportive allusions to per- 
sonal matters and tilings of the hour, with now 
and then an off-hand touch of metaphysics. 
A long and playful letter of this sort (Aug. 
22, 1844), addressed to his friend Mr. Ean- 
dolph Ryer, of New York, begins : " I joy- 
fully descend from the awful height of the 
sublime abstractions upon which for the past 
few weeks I have been so calmly seated, to 
converse with thee ; to mourn the sad fate 
which binds thee to the sensual ; and to offer 



60 THOMAS STABS KING. 

a few thoughts in relation to things temporal 
and spiritual." "It seems like an age since 
I was in your city. Scarcely any thing more 
than outline remains of the rich and varied ex- 
periences of those glorious three weeks. The 
events look dim and shadowy ; but the ac- 
tors, Randolph, still stand out in their natural 
brilliancy. Memory is a glorious fact in our 
spiritual constitution. Without it, the past 
would be nothing, and the future valueless. 
Time would be compressed into a present, in- 
definite, indivisible point ; History fade out of 
the circle of intellectual pursuits ; Reason con- 
cern itself merely with the intuitions of the 
instant; the sublime Inductions, founded on 
facts of past experience, would be withdrawn 
from the galaxy of the sciences ; and Beauty, 
which depends on combined expressions, die out 
of the heart of humanity. Considerations like 
these, my friend, as well as the present recollec- 
tions of Xew York, certainly afford a legitimate 
proof for the value and importance of memory. 
Perhaps you may think, so far as I am con- 
cerned, a science of forgetfulness would be of 



FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY. 61 

greater importance. It might, if the very recol- 
lection of errors was not the condition of re- 
morse and the possibility of reformation." 
Then the letter runs on, in a mixture of persons 
and metaphysics ; and at the close has the 
words, " Now for a return to the study of the 
middle ages ; " in 'which he was guided mainly 
by Guizot. 

Three months later (Sept. 24, 1844), he 
writes, — 

" The current of my temporal earthly exist- 
ence flows gently and calmly. The inner man 
also is serene; resting trustfully, as usual, in the 
arms of a glorious faith and a noble philosophy. 
Have you ever reflected on the intimate con- 
nection between revelation and philosophy, faith 
and reason ? By many they are put in contrast, 
set in opposition. Yet they mutually explain 
and reciprocally aid each other. Faith in man 
implies the doctrine of the dignity of human 
nature. The doctrines of revelation must con- 
form to the exhibitions which God has given us 
of his power, wisdom, glory, and goodness, 
through nature and the soul. Keason, instead 



62 THOMAS STARE KLS .-. 

of being subordinated to faith, is the very es- 
sence of faith, else faith is a blind idolatry. 
The true faith is the self-renunciation of reason 
where reason finds that it can know no farther. 
Faith is. therefore, reason; but reason under 
another form. You. Randolph, take your faith 
directly from Christianity, and apply it directly 
:: the condition of society. You desire the 
social manifestation of Christianity as the means 
of raising the mdividual. I also find that phi- 
losophy, as it is drawn from the crystal!: 
instruction of nature, and from the mjBtei 
depths of spiritual life, is confirmed and sancti- 
fied by Christianity. I look rather to the eleva- 
tion of the individual as one great mean of 
improving m ietjr. Both tendencies are neoee- 
sary, my friend. Xeither should exclude the 
other. Eclecticism is the motto on the banner 
of the nineteenth century." 

He was now having, to use his own words, 
glorious times in attending a philosophical class 
which met every Wednesday evening, and 
reading Stewart on the philosophy of the mind. 
" Our modus operandi," he says, "is this: We 



FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY. 63 

read some chapters ad interim , and at the meet- 
ings discuss the different points, and mutually 
expound." He remarks that he had read much 
in this department lately, and that it was as 
attractive as ever. He sought rare books on 
this subject ; and was amused with the remark 
with which a Boston scholar loaned him Cou- 
sin's " Plato," indicating grave doubts as to an 
ability in one so young to understand it. When 
Dr. Ott's work came out, he met something 
that puzzled him ; invited Harvard students to 
read it with him : and rich were the hours they 
had over this work. "I am at present," he 
wrote, " engaged in the study of a work on the 
latest school of German philosophy. It is by 
Dr. Ott, of Paris ; and is an exposition of the 
system of Hegel. Kant's system is pretty dif- 
ficult ; but this ties the brain up in knots." 

He now paid special attention to the German 
language, and took lessons in it of the cele- 
brated Dr. Kraitser. On Sundays, he would 
leave his own communion to listen in Boston to 
sermons in this language ; and far into the night 
he would talk of Goethe and Schiller, and the 



64 THOMAS STABB KING. 

German divines of the school of Tholjick and 
De Wette. He was passionately fond of Plato, 
and so closely studied the father of the pro- 
gressive school, that he seemed to live with him. 
On returning one day from a season of com- 
munion with Dr. Ballou, his bright eye had an 
uncommon sparkle, and his countenance was 
aglow with joy, because of the favorable judg- 
ment which this ripe scholar passed on an 
essay which he had prepared on knotty points 
of the Platonic works, and had left for ex- 
amination. This was not flattery in one of the 
truest and sincerest of men ; it was not vanity 
in a devoted explorer in the realms of truth ; it 
was recognition, by one having authority, of an 
intellectual triumph, and joy in the young en- 
thusiast at another mark of progress up heights 
which he felt it necessary to attain, though he 
might have the crowning qualification of the 
Christian gifts, ere he could be a worthy min- 
ister of the gospel. 

Not the least of his discipline and ripening 
for his mission was his manly wrestle with pov- 
erty and difficulty and grief. lie experienced 



FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY. 65 

suffering in most of the forms that rive the 
human heart. He had felt a great sorrow. 
The struggle at times had been severe ; but his 
high aim, his store of inward resources, the 
simple truth, enabled him to bear up and to 
press on. At times, even when the prospect 
was a clear sea and a halcyon sky, when he was 
so happy and mirthful as to be like sunlight in 
society, he would retire to hours when memo- 
ries of his past of grief would take possession 
of him. w Many meet the gods, but few salute 
them." He was one of the few. His reli- 
giously tuned ear ever heard the divine voice. 
He heard it in the ministry of sorrow as well as 
of joy, and he saluted his trials as blessings. 

He was in one of these moods one evening 
after a return from New York, and after he 
had continual company, when he wrote (Aug. 
10, 1845) a long letter to his friend Eandolph 
Ryer, of New York. "Hurry of business," he 
says, " and restlessness of spirit, are mortal foes 
to the sweet intercourse of friendship. The 
soul must float in a serener atmosphere, must 
be subject to more soothing influences, must dis- 
6 



66 THOMAS STARR KIXG. 

engage itself for a time from the limitations of 
space and circumstance, and feel itself at home 
in the free work of spiritual existence, before it 
can hope to indulge in that luxury of calm medi- 
tation, and arrive at that perfect ' synthesis ' of 
feeling, which is the first condition of epistolary 
success. To-night, for the first time since I 
left Xew York, I am alone. I am grateful for 
the soothing silence of the dying day. An un- 
natural excitement, which has been stimulated 
by continual company, is thrown off; and, if its 
departure brings again the memory of troubles, 
it also suggests anew pleasant recollections of 
distant friends." 

His strain was introspective. He dwelt much 
on his own past, and especially on his past of 
trouble and sorrow. r The reality of loss," he 
says, "often oppresses me; exaggerated perhaps 
by the imagination, which always imparts an 
ideal hue to the experience of the past as well as 
the expectations of the future." Still, his earnest 
words were, "I reverence the great law of com- 
pensation, even when it reveals itself to me in 
the distresses of the inner man." He says that 



FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY, 67 

he never felt so deeply his attachment to his 
friends ; and he relates having a rich conversa- 
tion with one of them, his pastor, on his return 
trip from New York. 

"Mr. Chapin and myself enjoyed a very in- 
teresting, and I believe profitable, conversation 
in the boat, upon literature and religion. I love 
him for his manly and free thought, his enlarged 
Christian charity, capable of seeing the excel- 
lences of his opponents, and the defects of his 
own sect ; and, above all, for that practical ap- 
preciation of the realities of religion and the 
spiritual world. Seldom have I met a man 
who with a heartier communion sympathized 
with a great doctrine which every day becomes 
more important and more real and more dear to 
me, — the doctrine of a universal Providence. 
I am indebted for the first conception of its 
grandeur and sublimity, as I am indebted for 
so many other of the better tendencies of my 
mind, to the noble lectures of Dr. Walker; 
and never shall I forget the emotions which the 
first indistinct but positive conception of its 
truth awakened in me. I look upon it now as 



68 THOMAS STARE KING. 

one of the greatest doctrines of Christianity ; 
and of vast importance in clearing up, when 
rightly understood, many of the difficulties 
which are now pricking the sides of the Chris- 
tian Church. Away with that inconsistent phi- 
losophy which believes in the spirituality and 
omnipresence of God, and cannot see that the 
action of every physical force is an immediate 
expression of his present will; that every law 
of nature is only the uniform and consistent 
developement of his steady designs ! Away 
with that practical atheism which professes faith 
in a universal Father, and does not recognize 
in every moral fact an exhibition of his disci- 
pline and his presence ! " 

This gives an idea of his words in commu- 
nion with friends, to whom, as he dwelt on 
his struggles and his hopes, he unconsciously 
sounded the depths of his nature. But to 
words are to be added the tone of voice, the 
gesture, the lights and shades of the face, as his 
talk flowed on. There could be no mistaking 
this combination. It revealed a real, stalwart 
character. It showed how this noble youth 



FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY. 69 

sought, like Enoch of old, to walk with God; 
and how faith in the sublime doctrine of Provi- 
dence, reverenced in its revelations in the inner 
man by sorrow as well as by the outward world 
of beauty and glory, gave peace to his soul 
when it was in trouble, and wings to his spirit 
when it soared. 

His circle of friends was now widening. He 
did not seek to dwell apart, or waste himself 
on musings on his inward life, or practise oddi- 
ties, or affect ways of greatness : but he was a 
true man of the world ; appreciating the bright 
side of life, and enjoying it. He was passion- 
ately fond of music and painting and sculpture ; 
and he loved the drama. He saw in art a 
development of the spirit of the beautiful in 
man, as he saw a revelation of God in the glory 
of nature. He was interested in what was go- 
ing on around him ; sought to know what was 
best for his country ; and was as enthusiastic, 
on seeing the right side in politics prevail, as 
he was when glorious rollers tumbled at his 
feet on the ocean shore at Eockport, or when 
he revelled in the unsurpassed glories of the 
Yo-Semite region. 



70 THOMAS STARR KING. 

It is a temptation to linger on the simple 
Starr King as he was before the public eye 
turned toward him, and as he stood on the 
threshold of responsibility. His former busi- 
ness-companions are warm in their eulogy of 
him. "I never saw," one of them says, "so 
noble a young man." His genial, generous, 
magnetic nature, his cordiality, his lovable 
qualities, drew hearts toward him wherever lie 
went ; for the natural gentleman was ever be- 
hind the brilliant conversational powers that 
made him the delight of society. He was a 
close observer as he was a sincere respecter of 
common life ; a keen judge of men and things ; 
and a good admirer as well as good listener. 
He would seize on incidents having touches of 
humor and witty sayings, and hold them in his 
memory ; and with the faculty of making a pic- 
ture in a graphic sentence, and a rare imparting 
gift, he would relate them with a raciness and 
vivacity and a right merry ringing laugh that 
were contagious ; and if they bore hard on him- 
self, then the greater glee. He did so much of 
tliis, and so well, that casual observers might 



FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY. 71 

have supposed that he cultivated story-telling 
and repartee as an art. But it was natural for 
him to do this as it was for him to breathe. 
Yet confidential correspondence proves that his 
craving was for ministry to his spiritual wants. 
The quiet serenity of nature, the solemn still- 
ness of the forest, the impressive silence of 
the mountain summit, the reflective beauty 
of the moon-lit lake, would, by the law of 
association, work in him convictions of the 
highest truths which the soul reaches, — the ex- 
istence of God, the beauty of the Christian 
faith, the dignity of human nature, the mean- 
ing of immortality.* His communion was in- 

* I have used Starr's own words in stating what the ministry 
of nature was to his spirit. They occur in his elaborate review 
of "Eestus;" a poem by Philip James Bailey. This article, 
printed before he was twenty-one, contains much to show how 
the influence of his daily experience moulded and directed his 
genius. The words on the ministry of nature occur in the fol- 
lowing connection : — 

" Mr. Bailey's love of beauty is a continual, unsatisfied, ever- 
burning thirst. Like every true poet, he has an intimate sym- 
pathy with the outward universe in all its forms. He is the child 
of Nature, and to her ' he turns heart, arm, and brain.' We sub- 
cribe to one element, at least, of his religious creed : — 

' Some souls lose all things but the love of beauty, 
And by that love they are redeemable ; 
For in love and beauty they acknowledge good.' 



72 THOMAS STARR KING. 

timate with the pioneers of progress, on whom 
the Almighty poured largely of the Spirit; and, 
above all, with Him who spake as never man 
spake ; who was Eternal Wisdom ; to whom he 
bowed, and whom he adored. And this reach- 
ing-out for truth celestial made not merely the 
strength but the basis of his character, and car- 
ried him nearer to his goal. 

His inward craving may be seen in the 
pleasure which he enjoyed in a class of friends, 
who, like himself, were aiming at spiritual 
growth. Among them were ingenuous young 
men of Harvard College, who heard of Starr 
King, and desired to make his acquaintance. 

And, again, who has not felt the truth of this inquiry ? — 

1 How can the beauty of material things 
So win the heart, and work upon the mind, 
Unless like-natured with them ? Are great things 
And thoughts of the same blood? They have like effect.' 

" There is deep meaning in the earnest question of these last 
two lines. Never, at least, have we so felt a conviction of the 
highest truths that address themselves to the inmost soul, the 
existence of God, the beauty of Christian faith, the dignity of 
human nature, the truth and meaning of immortality, as when, 
by some inexplicable association, they have been suggested by 
the quiet serenity of nature, the solemn stillness of the forest, the 
impressive silence of the mountain summit, the reflective oeauty 
of the moon-lit lake." 



FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY. 73 

"With some of them, now ranking high in their 
callings, he would compare notes of progress. 
There was none nearer to him than John M. 
Edgarton, — a pure and noble soul, of great 
solidity of character, deeply religious, but un- 
commonly undemonstrative and taciturn. Both 
had like philosophical tastes, both aimed for 
the clerical office, and both were of singular 
promise. Starr used to greet him, " How are 
you, Kingdom of Silence?" His death, a lit- 
tle later, was a sore bereavement, a great sor- 
row, quickening and deepening the fountains 
of sympathy. On receiving the intelligence, 
he wrote, "My dear friend and" associate, John 
M. Edgarton, is dead. It was very sudden ; 
came on me like a thunderbolt : indeed, I knew 
not how to bear it. John was one of the no- 
blest men I ever knew, and was decidedly the 
ablest man in our order. He is an irreparable 
loss. What need we have of faith, of constant 
spiritual insight, that these melancholy shows of 
things do not overwhelm us ! John is depart- 
ed, but not lost to us." Sarah C. Edgarton, 
his sister, was a like spirit ; and, on her depart- 



74 THOMAS STARR KING. 

ure, Starr spoke of her in a sermon as "the 
gifted and the good, whose genius was attuned 
with every force and harmony of nature ; w T hose 
friendship was one of the choicest pleasures of 
existence." She was at Shirley Village when 
her brother died, and, five days after this event, 
addressed to Starr a letter full of the divine in 
faith and consolation. " On this beautiful sab- 
bath morning," the letter begins, "holy and 
serene, when all nature is composed, and all 
heaven is at peace, shall I not make the hours 
of my solitude and weakness a season of grate- 
ful trust in God, and of consolation and cheer 
to myself and you? Would that you were 
here, dear Starr ! the peace and courage that 
is in my own soul could not fail to impart itself 
to you. Doubtless you will have this peace 
soon, when this sorrow is less new to you, and 
your own high views have had time to subdue 
the anguish of bereaved affection. John had 
no dearer friend than yourself." Sarah soon 
joined her brother in heaven, and the three 
are now gathered in one fold. But, as Starr 
approached manhood, he was bathing himself 



FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY. 75 

in this sweet spiritual influence, counting it one 
of the choicest pleasures of existence. The 
wider circle of older friends continued complete 
for more than a decade ; and, when it was 
broken, the cry of the bruised in spirit gives 
an idea of the strength of the silver cord. 

Thus the deceitful paths, always wide open, 
and which at this period of life lure so many, 
had no temptation for Thomas Starr King. 
He chose wisdom's ways, and they yielded him 
their rich reward ; and, as he enjoyed the com- 
munion of souls rich in learning and piety, he 
walked among them, charmiugly unconscious 
that he possessed a Minerva of intellect pano- 
plied in shining armor,* but feeling the most 
an inward want, a need of the grace of culture, 
and without a trace of conceit. The childhood 
traits, now developed into principles of action, 
remained childlike in the jewels of simplicity 
and purity : the same, the reverence for the 
divine ; the same, the enthusiasm for learning ; 
the same, the filial piety ; and the same, the 
noble purpose, as they were seven years before, 

* Dr. Chapin. 



76 THOMAS STARR KING. 

but all blossoming in rich and rare maturity. 
For, imbued with these normal influences that 
minister to the pure in heart, the days of his 
youth, when he remembered his Creator, glided 
on as free from the things which tempt and 
stain, and as abounding in the things that 
elevate and adorn, as often falls to the lot of 
humanity. His great, broad heart was flowing 
forth in love and good works. His splendid 
genius was enriched by culture, and consecrated 
for service. His faith was unclouded by doubt, 
and his philosophy was fortified by experience. 
His life even now stood — 

" Rounded and approved 
In the full growth and stature of a man." 




THE 



BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 




TARE at twenty, on the beginning of 
his ministry, had been educated, Rev. 
A. D. Mayo says, w by hard work ; by 
experiences, that, to a nature less joyous than his, 
would have been stern and sad ; by the school- 
room, the navy-yard and its motley population, 
the concert, and the drama ; by rare hours with 
the best men and women, and solitary nights 
of study as intense and protracted as the mind 
could endure ; by Nature, which always min- 
istered so largely to his spirit ; by a communion 
with God and a love for man as deep and child- 
like as is often given to any soul to enjoy." 
He freely used the four ancient and modern 
languages, that, with the English, contain, in 

[77] 



78 THOMAS STARR KING. 

original or translated forms, the entire wisdom 
of the world ; he had read widely in German 
and English theology ; he was familiar with the 
systems of philosophy that have formed epochs 
in the progress of man, and was well versed in 
history and general literature.* " He had not 
neglected a matter of great importance, which 
public speakers too often disregard, or but care- 
lessly attend to, — a good delivery. He had 

* Rev. A. T>. Mayo, who was one of Starr's early and inti- 
mate friends, makes this enumeration in his sermon, delivered 
March 13, 1864, at Cincinnati. He married Sarah C. Edgarton, 
and in 1849 published selections from her writings, with a me- 
moir. I have quoted Mr. King's tribute • to this gifted spirit. 
This memoir has the folio-wing sonnet: — 

MBS. S. C. E. MATO. 
BY MES. H. J. W. LEWIS. 

" I do not weep for thee ; I have not wept."— S. C. E. Mayo. 

Sister, friend, poetess, a long farewell .' 

There needs not many words to paint my grief: 
Wife, mother, Nature's priestess ! who can tell 

The sum of all thy joys in life so brief? 
The beauty of thy daily walk the y know 

Who dwelt withiu the circle of thy love, — 
Thy calm, pure faith; thy truth like spotless snow; 

Thy spirit strong, yet gentle as the dove. 
And shall we hear no more the strain sublime, 

Or soft or touching, thou hast breathed so well ? 
Can we resign thee in thy life's sweet prime, 

And, lost to earth, give thee with God to dwell? 
I have wept burning tears, and still must weep, 
That one so great and good should fall asleep. 



BEGINNING OF SIS MINISTRY. 79 

studied the philosophy of the voice, trained his 
vocal organs under competent teachers, and 
acquired the art of concealing art in speaking 
in the tone by which Nature expresses sentiment 
and feeling. At this time, in his own opinion, 
he was far from being prepared for the Christian 
ministry : but Dr. Ballou thought he was well 
fitted for it ; and Mr. Mayo says he was 
qualified for it as few men have been at any 
age. 

Starr appeared before the public (1845) in 
the unenviable character of a Fourth-of-July 
orator, on an invitation from Medford to take 
part in a citizens' celebration of Independence, 
and spoke in the Unitarian Church. Dr. Bal- 
lou was present ; and if, at the beginning of the 
oration, observers noticed in his countenance 
the lines and shades betokening anxiety as to 
the impression which his young friend was about 
to make in his first public effort, they also noticed 
that they disappeared as his glancing eye saw 
the delight imparted to the audience by crystal 
clearness of statement, by a quiet self-posses- 
sion of manner removed alike from an unmanly 



80 THOMAS STARR KING. 

diffidence and an offensive assurance, and by a 
brilliant and eloquent utterance. His face was 
kept lighted up with a halo of joy. Such a 
listener was an inspiration to the orator ; who 
said, "When the doctor's face was all aglow 
with satisfaction, I knew it was all right." 
The oration was a success, and the author 
received the warmest congratulations. This 
production was not printed.* 

Starr contributed to the July number of the 
" Universalist Quarterly Review," then edited 
by Dr. Ballou, an article entitled "Philosophy 
and Theology ; " and to the October number an 
elaborate review of "Festus," a poem by Philip 
James Bailey. These papers are characterized 
by the simple style, poetic fervor, keen analysis, 
richness of illustration, strength and individual- 
ism, that mark his productions ; and form an 
interesting record of his attainments in meta- 
physics and literature. As the last article was 
going through the press, he delivered his first 
sermon at Woburn, Mass. ; and he preferred 

* A letter by Professor Tweed on this oration will be found 
in the Appendix. 



BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 81 

that his most intimate friends should not be 
present. He soon after preached in Maiden, 
where several members of the Charlestown Uni- 
versalist Society went to hear him ; and he also 
supplied Dr. Ballou's desk. His services were 
received with uncommon favor. The invita- 
tions extended to him to supply pulpits were 
numerous, — perhaps more than he cared to an- 
swer ; for he looked on study to be for a long 
time his duty, although he felt it also to be a 
duty to answer calls for service. 

Among the pulpits which he occupied was 
that of a small Universalist society in Boston, 
which had been recently formed, occupying the 
chapel in Chardon Street, having Dr. Adam 
for their minister; and he engaged, under pecu- 
liar circumstances, statedly to supply their desk. 
His connection with this society is related in a 
letter, May 5, 1846, after he had preached 
here several weeks : — 

"Their pastor, Dr. Adam, is now absent to 
improve his health at the West ; and in accord- 
ance with his urgent solicitation, and a very 
cordial, not to say flattering, request from the 
6 



82 THOMAS STARE KINO. 

society, I have promised to supply for them till 
his return. This will not be for some months 
yet. They are very fine people, and certainly 
as intelligent a congregation as can be found in 
our order. Do not, my dear friend, feel con- 
cerned lest I am too hastily assuming the pas- 
toral robes. You cannot write more strongly 
than I feel upon the solemnity of that office, 
and the necessity of adequate preparation in 
assuming it. My present task is temporary 
merely, undertaken to aid a very worthy man, 
and to gratify a few strong friends in the above- 
mentioned congregation. " 

Dr. Chapin having accepted a call from the 
church in School Street, Boston, the Charles- 
town Society sought Mr. King for their minister. 
The letter (July 16, 1846) expressed gratifi- 
cation that he had chosen, as the work of his 
life, the vocation of the parent whose memory 
was so dear to them ; and the hope that the son 
might follow the father, " so far as he followed 
Christ, in defending and adorning the cause of 
universal grace." The young preacher hesitated 
to assume the responsibilities of this position. A 



BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY 83 

second and larger representation of the feelings 
of the society was presented to him ; and, on 
the 2d of August, he wrote an acceptance. In 
it he said that the state of his health, the ur- 
gent necessity for constant study, and the many 
duties springing from the pastoral relation, 
compelled him to throw himself on their liber- 
ality for an unusual freedom in pulpit exchanges 
during the early period of his ministry ; and 
he promised to bring to a discharge of the 
heavy responsibilities which the office of a Chris- 
tian pastor imposed and implied, only a sincere 
and devoted heart.* . 

* The following is Mr. King's letter of acceptance: — 

Charlestown, Aug. 2, 1846. 
My dear Feiejtd and Brother, — Your letter, communi- 
cating the action of the First Universalist Society of this place 
on the 15th ult., extending to me an invitation to become their 
pastor, has been received, together with a statement of the pro- 
ceedings of the society at an adjourned meeting, held July 26, 
when the action of the committee was " approved and confirmed." 
You may well believe, that in communicating through you my 
acceptance of a call so flattering, from the character and standing 
of the society, still more so from the unanimity of feeling by 
which it was dictated, I am not insensible to the heavy responsi- 
bilities which the office of a Christian pastor imposes and implies. 
There are many associations, of a personal as well as of a re- 
ligious nature, which are calculated to make the welfare of your 

> 



84 THOMAS STARR KING. 

The usual ordination service was conducted 
mainly by his personal friends. The delivery of 
the Scriptures and the charge were by Dr. Bal- 
lou, and the ceremony was impressive. The 
sermon was by Dr. Chapin, from the text, 
" Whosoever will be the greatest among you, 
let him be your minister ; " and he made his 

society a matter of deep and earnest interest to me. I shall 
come to you a young man, without pastoral experience, embar- 
rassed, perhaps, somewhat by many relations of a social and 
friendly character to the majority of my brethren, and able to 
bring only a sincere and devoted heart to aid in sustaining the 
reputation of a pulpit that has witnessed the labor of him whose 
memory cannot be indifferent to me, and of a predecessor whose 
abilities and eloquence I can never hope to reach. Next to that 
support that does not come from human help, I must rely upon 
your indulgence and sympathy to sustain me, and especially on 
that cordial co-operation with my labors, without which no talents 
can be of any avail. The present state of my health, the urgent 
necessity for constant study, the time that must necessarily be 
devoted to a general and intimate acquaintance with the mem- 
bers of the society, and the many duties that spring from a 
pastoral relation so extensive, will compel me to throw myself 
upon your liberality for an unusual freedom in pulpit exchanges 
during the early period of my ministry. Trusting that this may 
be granted, and earnestly praying that the blessing of Heaven 
may rest upon the union we have formed, 

I remain your sincere friend and brother, 

Thomas Starr King. 
Kichard Frothingham, Jim., Esq., 

Chairman of Standing Committee of the First Universalist Society. 



BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 85 

theme, " The ministry a work of self-consecra- 
tion." The fellowship of the churches was 
given by Rev. Cyrus M. Fay. The address to 
the society was by that noble man, Sebastian 
Streeter, who touchingly portrayed the beauty 
of the spectacle presented in the consecration 
of this youth to the service of the Redeemer. 
Sarah C. Edgarton contributed the following 
hymn : — 

" Thou whom heaven and earth adore, 
The only good, the undefiled ! 
Thy consecrating Spirit pour 

Through all the being of thy child. 

Whate'er thy hand hath set apart 

For him on earth to do or bear, 
With holy faith inspire his heart, 

And make him thy perpetual care. 

Here, where his father stood and taught, 

The mantle falls upon his youth : 
Oh, make his mighty tide of thought 

A sea to bear abroad thy truth ! 

His words of power shall lift to thee 
The fainting soul, the sensual mind : 

Like stars in heaven their light shall be, 
To guide the lost, and lead the blind. 

Through all his varied trials, God, 
Do thou his guide and guardian be ; 

And, leaning on thy living Word, 

Sustain him home to heaven and thee! " 



86 THOMAS STAER KIXG. 

The speakers made tender references to the 
father. " I felt," Dr. Chapin says, "" a sacred 
fitness in transmitting the office of that father 
to the hands of that son." The burning words 
of the preacher, and indeed the whole* occa- 
sion, were calculated to deepen the consecration 
of soul which crowns with lustre this noble life. 

The young pastor brought to his labors a 
rare combination of gifts. His own experience 
had been valuable, because his pulses had beat 
healthfully and naturally. He had mingled 
much with the world. He had not threaded 
its dark paths ; he never had an eye for the 
sad side of life : still he had had free contact 
with men and things ; and his sunnv nature 
drew inspiration from the genial, the good, the 
true, and the Christian-like in common life. 
He looked closely into himself, reflected on the 
workings of his own mind, and commimed 
freely on spiritual things with those in whom 
he felt confidence. Rich as was his intellect, 
richer yet was his love and his faith. 

He tried now in the vocation of his life to do 
his best. As he stood for two years where his 



BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 87 

father stood, mature and profound utterances, 
golden words, the fruit of long study and of 
the lessons of practical life, dropped from the 
sacred desk. His style was not in the passion 
which marks the great orator. He did not 
aim to melt the heart, and, by subduing it, to 
reach the intellect. This is the characteristic 
of preachers like Whitefield, who, when the 
voice that charms and leads captive dies away, 
too often leave nothing adequate to justify the 
effects they produce. Mr. King's sermons were 
original in conception, and clear in arrange- 
ment, full of simple reasoning, » analyzing and 
presenting different sides of a subject, and 
working out the laws of spiritual life. His 
evening lectures, especially, were characterized 
by masterly generalization and felicitous group- 
ing. This may be said particularly of a 
series of discourses on Old-Testament char- 
acters, — Abraham, Moses, David, Samson, 
and others. They were after the manner of a 
teacher having authority, but without dogma- 
tism. His treatment of a subject was so 
marked by unity, as to indicate that the whole 



88 THOMAS STARR KING. 

sweep of it was in the mind before a line was 
written. It is by his sermons, perhaps, he will 
be judged intellectually. His lectures, and 
other occasional efforts, with the exception of 
"Goethe" and some of his orations, however 
great the fame they achieved for him, or the 
results they produced, were but the work of 
the hour. His pulpit-utterances were the 
flowerings of a life of spiritual unity; and in his 
happy moods, when the spell of his religious 
genius was on him, sentiment flowed from him 
as naturally and as unconsciously as the waters 
glide. 

His delivery was rather earnest than passion- 
ate. He had a deep, strange, rich voice, which 
he knew how to use. His eyes were extraor- 
dinary in every sense of the word, with won- 
derful impressiveness. "There were persua- 
sion," it has been said, "and argument, in his 
very look : his eyes were living sermons, ' known 
and read of all men.' That peculiar shake and 
nod of the head, when he was addressing his 
congregation, were the promptings of a deep- 
settled conviction of the unbounded importance 



BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 89 

of the truth advocated by an earnest soul." 
Calm as was his manner, and closely as he con- 
fined himself to his notes, his delivery produced 
a marked impression. "In an experience," Mr. 
Mayo says, "of twenty years of professional 
life, in which I have heard almost every great 
American preacher, I have never been so affected 
as by those early discourses. I have never seen 
large and appreciative congregations so en- 
tranced by sermons as were those to which he 
spake." 

There were occasions when his feelings were 
stirred, and he became emphatically the impas- 
sioned orator. An instance occurred in an ex- 
tempore speech he made, as he was passing the 
day with his society in a grove in the country. 
He was in his best mood ; and , being called upon 
for a word, he spoke of the sublime doctrine 
of universal Providence, and drew inspiration 
from the sky and the landscape, the trees and 
the flowers, the singing of the birds, and all 
the varied music of Nature. He poured forth 
strains of surpassing eloquence. He was re- 
quested to write out this speech ; but he replied, 



90 - THOMAS STAER KING. 

that it was not worth the trouble : besides, he 
could not remember it ; saying, " I wish I could 
speak extempore." No persuasion that he had 
the orator's gift could induce him to speak from 
the desk without notes. Except on social occa- 
sions, or taking part in ordinations, perhaps he 
did not trust himself to do it, in a single in- 
stance, until the progress of his work in Cali- 
fornia. 

•» 
He discharged the pastoral offices with un- 
wonted grace and dignity. No one could better 
lighten up a season of joy. His presence in the 
social circle was ever like sunshine ; and he 
would enter with boy-like glee into the spirit of 
a happy occasion. A deep sympathy, spring- 
ing from fountains of feeling born of his expe- 
rience, rendered his ministrations in seasons of 
sorrow uncommonly solemn. He attended faith- 
fully to a Bible class in the Sunday school; was 
present in the meetings of the benevolent asso- 
ciation attached to his society ; and aimed to 
promote the general prosperity of his charge. 
The pastoral connection appeared to be mutu- 
ally happy and profitable. 



BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 91 

On the invitation of the city authorities of 
Charlestown, Mr. King delivered, in 1847, an 
address on the Seventeenth of June. He used 
much of the thought of the Fourth-of-July 
oration which he delivered two years before. 
It was an analysis, acute and profound, of the 
principles involved in the American Revolution. 
He laid down, as the formula of this great 
movement, freedom as an idea ; and not merely 
political freedom, but moral and spiritual, 
limited only by the law of right. This was 
the idea symbolized in the rattling musketry 
of Bunker Hill ; and he went on in an ex- 
haustive manner to urge that it was the mission 
of this nation to work out and work up this 
idea in the various relations of society. It was 
a noble utterance, and received the warmest 
commendation. A distinguished scholar (Dr. 
Osgood) has remarked on the contrast between 
the almost boyish appearance of the orator and 
the wisdom and depth with which he spoke : 
"We remember hearing his Bunker-hill ora- 
tion on June 17, 1847, and being impressed 
with the profound and exhaustive analysis which 



92 THOMAS STARS KING. 

he then gave of the great principles which were 
involved in the American Revolution ; a treat- 
ment of the subject which well became the pupil 
of the great idealist. The youthful and almost 
boyish appearance of the orator, which he re- 
tained in a good measure through life, and on 
which he expended many pleasantries, made the 
contrast of the wisdom and depth with which he 
spoke all the more noticeable. In the short 
seventeen years since then, he has laid the 
foundation and reared the superstructure of a 
famous reputation, a lofty patriotism, an un- 
tiring and whole-souled devotion to his church, 
and a usefulness which has filled the mouths of 
men from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He has 
left a pure and brilliant record ; and few names 
of his day will go down to posterity carrying 
such a traditional renown for pulpit oratory and 
splendid lectures as Starr King."* 

He now made his debut as a lecturer. One 
of his earliest efforts in this line was a dis- 
course on Goethe, "the many-sided." It was 
not a result of the cramming process. He had 

* "Christian Inquirer," March 19, 1864. 



BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 93 

studied the works of the great German for 
years ; and, not unlikely, he talked the most of 
it before he wrote a line. Its delivery marks an 
event in his life. It drew attention to him out- 
side of his parish. As he entered the lecture- 
room, strangers were surprised at his boy-face, 
and doubtful of his intellectual capacity; but 
this vanished as a few sharply-put sentences 
unfolded his grasp of the theme. His lecture on 
Goethe received large commendation. When 
delivered before the Mercantile-Library Asso- 
ciation of Boston, it elicited warm tributes from 
the press. It was said that the singular skill 
with which the lecturer portrayed the character 
of Goethe, the judgment passed on his failings, 
the picture of his genius, the power of analysis, 
the beauty of diction, the repose and yet fervor 
of the delivery, made a marked impression on 
the great audience, who listened with intense 
interest, and in silence broken only by applause. 
The lecturer met with much personal congratu- 
lation. It was delivered in Cambridge; and 
Dr. Walker, who heard him for the first time, 
said of it, that it was not merely remarkable 



94 THOMAS STABR KIXG. 

that so young a man should have given such 
a lecture, but that anybody should have done 
it. The critic may pronounce its views to be 
sound or faulty, but will hardly question its 
richness or originality.* 

* "Mercantile-Library Association. — The lecture last 
evening was delivered by Rev. Thomas S. King, of Charlestown. 
His subject was ' Goethe,' the complex-minded German. Fully 
comprehending the genius of the poet, and amply informed with 
all the most important biographical incidents in the life of the 
man, Mr. King came before the great audience assembled to hear 
him, with the most satisfactory preparation. Goethe's literary 
history began with his boyhood, and extended through a long line 
of illustrious years; so that the subject chosen was no unimpor- 
tant or uninterested theme for interpretation. Viewed in his 
outward, every-day life merely, this great man furnishes an ex- 
ample of supremacy rarely to be met with in the annals of letters. 
Mr. King began at the beginning (where, by the way, few lecturers 
think it worth their while generally to commence); and, during 
the whole of his admirable performance, received the undivided 
attention of his hearers. Our limited space does not permit the 
mention of even the heads of this eloquent discourse, while we 
should be glad to give a full report of the entire address. Thor- 
oughly in earnest with his subject, arranging his topics in a clear 
and concise manner, handling disputed points of discussion in 
the best taste, the lecture may be considered as one of the most 
successful of this or any former course before the institution. 
As an orator, Mr. King already ranks among the most effective 
speakers; and we may confidently look to him for similar future 
efforts of rare excellence." — Evening Transcript. 

" For upwards of an hour and a quarter, Mr. King held the 
unbroken attention of a very large audience. His subject was 



BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 95 

The pastor had the satisfaction of seeing his 
labors prosper. Young men found his pres- 
entation of Christian truth to meet their wants ; 
and, large as the society was, it was growing. 
So was his fame. Other societies of the Lib- 
eral communion sought his services. An ear- 
nest endeavor was made by Dr. Dewey's society 
in New York to have him enter the Cambridge 

' Goethe.' The character of this remarkable writer -was por- 
trayed with singular skill. His failings were judged rather than 
condemned ; while his genius was displayed in vivid but discrimi- 
nating colors. Rare powers of analysis, a true spirit of criticism, 
copiousness and beauty of diction, in the lecturer, were joined 
with elevation of thought, with imagination and candor. Mr. 
King showed an easy power. There was nothing feverish, spas- 
modic, youthful. What he said was thoughtful, well-sustained, 
manly. His illustrations, drawn from other fields of literature, 
were apt. His imagery was abundant. In his delivery there 
was ease, distinctness, repose, and yet fervor. It was an uncom- 
mon spectacle to behold so vast an audience hanging upon the 
lips of one whose juvenile appearance revealed what has been 
called 'the atrocious crime of being a young man.' It is a 
source of happiness that one so young is so full, not only of 
promise, but performance. May the performance of to-day be 
but a promise of the future!" — Boston Courier. 

" The address was clothed in beautiful and eloquent lan- 
guage, and adorned with the most appropriate imagery. It 
gave evidence that its author, though young in years, was ripe 
in judgment, and that he had made himself most intimately 
acquainted with the writings of the great German poet." — 
Mercantile Journal. 



96 THOMAS STARR KING. 

Divinity School, in view of becoming their pas- 
tor. The correspondence on this proposition 
is not at hand. A salary large for a poor man, 
a twelvemonth's season for uninterrupted study, 
and an enviable location, were inducements ; 
but the offer was declined. The manliness of 
the young preacher in this matter was admira- 
ble. He received also a call from the Fourth 
Universalist Church in New York, which he 
laid before his society. He said (Dec. 21, 
1847), "Many letters have been transmitted to 
me, portraying the advantages to our cause, 
and the cheering prospects of prosperity to the 
society that would ensue, if I should consent to 
accept the call. I cannot forbear to state, how- 
ever, that my relations to the people with whom 
I am now connected are of the most pleasant 
nature, and that I am conscious of no desire 
to seek a change of situation. The only reason 
why I have allowed the matter to occupy the 
attention of the society, springs from my pecu- 
niary circumstances, and the greater calls in 
prospect which I shall be compelled to meet. 
The thought of leaving my present connection 



BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 97 

is certainly a most painful one ; but, in the 
state of my affairs, I feel it to be a duty to 
take counsel, not of my preferences alone, but 
also of my necessities." He declined this call ; 
and an addition was made to his salary. 

He was favorably located, so far as his pur- 
suits were concerned. He added largely to 
his list of personal friends ; and, among others, 
he made the acquaintance of Rev. Henry W. 
Bellows of New York, and of Dr. Bartol of 
Boston. He could enjoy the communion with 
choice spirits which his nature required, and 
the repose of life conducive to academic labor 
and intellectual growth. His love of meta- 
physical inquiry had now settled into a perma- 
nent speciality. He had long felt the desire, 
and perhaps had laid out a plan, for a work 
on philosophy, from an American stand-point, 
which was certainly worthy of his genius and 
ambition. He was now one of a large minis- 
terial circle who met at each other's houses. 
"Brother King," Eev. C. H. Leonard says, 
" did much for this circle of students. When 
others failed to be prepared, he was always 
7 



98 THOMAS STARR KING. 

readv with some interesting discourse or essay, 
and was always prompt to meet the demand 
when his time came to read. Indeed, I once 
heard our revered Dr. Ballou say, f Brother 
Kins: "was the life of the meetino;s. , " He 
continued a member of this circle for ten or 
twelve years, and until its meetings were given 
up. 

Though successful in his parochial labors, he 
encountered remarks which were grating to his 
spirit. He labored in the place of his boyhood. 
His rich mhthful vein — cheerfulness which was 
''like a bud's carol on the bousrh" — caused him 
to be misunderstood. It was natural, that, sen- 
sitive as he was, he should feel, in a profession 
so peculiar, inward obstacles. Xor is it surpris- 
ing that many should not have recognized the 
prophet in his own land. Xo university crowned 
liim with its honors ; the circle of fashion could 
hardly comprehend his transcendent merit : no 
great patrons sounded his fame : and it seemed 
to many not possible that Saul could step from 
the local counting-room, the grammar-school, 
or the navy-yard. Few really kuew the imier 



BEGINNING OF EIS MINISTRY. 99 

nature that nerved and moved his soul. The 
wonder is, that so many saw and bowed before 
his extraordinary gifts. 

In the spring of 1848, the Committee of the 
Hollis-street Society endeavored to obtain Mr. 
King for their pastor ; and he gave their pro- 
posals serious consideration. His frail frame 
reeled under the labors and the anxieties of his 
charge. " For some months past," he wrote to 
his society, June 17, "as some of you are 
aware, my health has been quite poor. It has 
been impossible for me to perform the duties of 
my office as they should be discharged; and, 
of late, serious apprehensions have disturbed me 
that I should be obliged to relinquish all labor 
for a long time." His nervous prostration was 
very serious. The liberality of a friend en- 
abled him to make a voyage to Fayal, one of the 
western islands of the Atlantic ; and the society 
cheerfully complied with the request for a leave 
of absence. On the 18th, he wrote to the 
Hollis-street Society a declination of their lib- 
eral and flattering call, and sailed the next day. 
This sea-trip proved beneficial to his health, and 



100 THOMAS STARR KIXG. 

renewed his strength. On his return, his spirit 
was buoyant, and he seemed in pristine vigor 
as he delivered a beautiful sermon on his ocean 
experience, in which he paid the tribute, already 
quoted,* to his friend, who had died during his 
absence, — Mrs. Sarah C. E. Mayo. 

The Committee of the Hollis-street Society 
now renewed their invitation in a communica- 
tion, enclosing a copy of votes which the pro- 
prietors of the house had passed, inviting him 
r to become minister and pastor of that society." 
On the 6th of October, on accepting this call, 
he said that the decision was not unattended by 
pain and fear : of pain on severing a most 
j)leasant pastoral connection with a large and 
prosperous society ; and of fear at entering a 
field untried, where the most faithful labor 
might not seem success. He touched brief- 
ly, but pointedly, on denominational matters ; 
and closed with the heartfelt prayer that Heaven 
might bless both pastor and people with a com- 
mon and zealous faithfulness to the cause of the 

* See page 74. 



BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 101 

Kedeemer.* On the next day, he announced 
this acceptance to his society in a characteristic 
letter, frank, warm, and beautiful. It cost him 
a severe struggle to part with old friends and 
the friends of his father, and it grieved them 
to part with him. The society was strong, 
healthy, and prosperous. It was in his way — 
in his modesty and his under-estimate of him- 
self — to write as to the course he felt compelled 

* Charlestown, Oct. 6, 1848. 
To the Committee of Hollis-street Society. 

Gentlemen, — It is my duty to acknowledge the receipt of a 
communication from you, enclosing a copy of votes passed by 
the Proprietors of Hollis-street Meeting-house on Monday even- 
ing last, by which I am invited " to become minister and pastor 
of that society." 

Though I did not anticipate, when my letter of June last, in 
reply to a similar communication, was sent to you, that the invi- 
tation would be renewed, my circumstances have so far changed, 
that I have been able, of late, to give the subject more serious 
consideration than formerly ; and I have now to request that you 
will receive and announce to the society my acceptance of their 
call. 

It is right for me to say, that this decision is not unattended 
by pain and fear. It severs a most pleasant pastoral connection 
with a large and prosperous society, from whose members I have 
received the most generous treatment, and which offers an ample 
opportunity for Christian effort; while it introduces me to a field 
partially untried, where even the most faithful labor may not 
secure success. 

The kind and liberal manner in which, gentlemen, you have 



102 THOMAS STARR KIXO. 

to take : " It is but just to say, what indeed is 
sufficiently obvious, that no cause of dissatisfac- 
tion has been furnished by the society ; neither 
has any arisen out of its circumstances and con- 
dition. Its prosperity is evident ; and I have 
ever been treated by its members with kindness 
and forbearance. They have been more faithful 
to their duties than I to mine." He was em- 
phatic in the statement that the step had not even 
been taken in part by any change of religious 
views. The society adopted a series of resolu- 

been pleased to refer to my present position, encourages the hope, 
that the relation which it is and ever will be my happiness 
to sustain towards many brethren of a different name, though 
scarcely of a different faith, from your own, will prove no barrier 
to that entire harmony of feeling with your future pastor. 

I am not conscious of any peculiarity of belief which ought 
to prevent an acceptance of your invitation : the distinctive fea- 
ture of Unitarian theology it has long been my joy to receive and 
preach ; and it will be a great pleasure to me to be more nearly 
united by position and social ties to those brethren of your de- 
nomination with whom I have long enjoyed spiritual sympathy 
and the fellowship of a common faith. 

With the heartfelt prayer that Heaven will bless the connec- 
tion to which we may now look forward, and that our common 
and zealous faithfulness to the cause of the Redeemer, in our dif- 
ferent spheres, may prove the means of a noble prosperity to our 
church, I remain, very truly, your friend and brother, 

T. S. King. 



BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 103 

tions, cordially reciprocating the friendly senti- 
ment of his letter, and expressing their heartfelt 
wishes for his future prosperity and happiness ; 
leaving the decision with him as to the time 
of the dissolution of the connection.* It was 

* The following is Mr. King's letter: — 

Chaklestown, Oct. 7, 1848. 
To the Committee of the Universalist Society. 

Buethrex, — It is my duty to announce to you that I have 
this week accepted an invitation to settle with the Hollis-street 
Society in Boston ; and therefore, that at the expiration of three 
months, or at an earlier date if it be thought mutually desirable, 
my pastoral connection with the Universalist Society in this city 
will cease. 

The reasons which have induced me to take this step are 
of such a nature, growing out of peculiar necessities and private 
feelings which cannot be controlled, that they cannot properly be 
stated at length, and could not, I fear, be appreciated by any who 
do not fully know my circumstances, and the inward obstacles 
with which, since my settlement, I have been obliged to contend. 
Although the conflict of feeling in arriving at this decision has 
been severe, I feel certain that the course which I have taken is 
justified by motives, the force of which my conscience could not 
evade, and to which I was compelled to yield. 

It is but just to say, what indeed is sufficiently obvious, that 
no cause of dissatisfaction has been furnished by the society; 
neither has any arisen out of its circumstances and condition. 
Its prosperity is evident; and I have ever been treated by its 
members with uniform kindness and forbearance. They have 
been more faithful to their duties than I to mine ; and I cannot 
forget, that to a large number of them I owe, in behalf of our 
family, a debt of gratitude for generosity of earlier date than 
that which has been extended directly to myself. I trust, there- 



104 THOMAS STARR KING. 

thought best that his labors in Boston should 
not be delayed three months ; and, uttering an 
affectionate parting word from his pulpit, on 
the first Sunday in November, a month before 
his installation, he began his eleven -years' 

fore, brethren, you will feel assured, that, in spite of my convic- 
tion that the labors of some other pastor would be better adapted 
to and appreciated by a majority of the society, it is a most 
painful and trying thing for me to sever the tie which has bound 
me to such faithful and cherished friends. 

Excuse me, also, if I state that this step has not been sug- 
gested, even in part, by any change of religious views. If my 
feelings and tendencies of thought have unfitted me for strong 
sectarian sympathies, yet my confidence in the cardinal princi- 
ples of Universalism, and the cheering prospect of the ultimate 
triumph of good, remains unshaken ; and I trust it will be evi- 
dent that my change of position will not weaken my attachment 
to the Universalist denomination, nor remove me beyond the 
cordial and most pleasant fellowship of my present associates in 
the ministry. 

Private considerations almost exclusively have urged and 
compelled me to dissolve my present ties, and seek another field 
of labor. The course may be misinterpreted by many; but I 
feel confident that the motives by which it has been dictated are 
such as God approves. 

I pray you, brethren, in communicating to the society this 
letter, which it has cost me so much pain to write, to assure them 
that my most hearty prayer is for their spiritual welfare ; and to 
accept, on your own behalf, my gratitude for your friendship and 
counsel, and my warmest wishes for your personal prosperity 
and happiness. Most truly your friend and brother, 

T. S. Kixg. 



BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 105 

service as the minister of the Hollis-street 
Society. 

It is but simple justice to say, that Mr. 
King's ministry had more than met the expecta- 
tion of his friends, while he had been solidly 
growing in character and intellectual power. 
He had contributed freely to several periodicals, 
and his philosophical papers had attracted much 
attention in influential circles. Other papers, 
less pretentious, show the blossoming of his 
religious genius. His reputation was wide out- 
side of his parish. In a word, to use Mr. 
Mayo's language, "for two years he ministered 
as few men have toiled; and, at their end, found 
himself an acknowledged power in the head- 
quarters of American theological culture." 




ELEVEN YEARS OF HIS MINISTRY. 



f^S^HOMAS STARR KIXG was installed 




the pastor of the Hollis-street Society 
as he was about to enter on his twenty- 
fourth birthday. In the ministry of the gifted 
Holley, who has been called the most splendid 
orator Xew England has produced, the society 
enjoyed rare prosperity : it was now disabled 
by dissension and disaster to such an extent, 
that it was " a fragment whose very fibres were 
bruised." These are Mr. King's words ; and 
he said, "KI had known the precise state of 
the case, how few of the pews were owned or 
even rented, how strong was the prejudice 
against the church and the very building on 

account of the long troubles, and how little 
[ 106 ] 



ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 107 

hope of the future of the parish was felt out- 
side of the committee that conducted the corre- 
spondence with me, I could not have dared so 
great a venture as an acceptance of the call."* 

The installation ceremony took place on 
Wednesday evening, Dec. 6. "The Trumpet" 
says, "The council consisted of the pastors 
and delegates of thirty-nine churches, four of 
which were Universalist. We are not sure that 
all the churches invited were present. Rev. 
Dr. F. Parkman was elected moderator; and 
Rev. Mr. Coolidge, scribe. The candidate was 
examined on several points : and, first, whether 
he agreed with the Rationalists, so called, in 
his views of the Scriptures ; and he gave such 
answers as fully satisfied the council that his 
mind had no bias of that nature. He was 
then asked whether he believed that retribution 
extended to the future world. To which he 
replied, that he had always held and preached 
that the characters which men form in this life 
are the characters with which they enter the 
future state. On being asked whether he be- 

* Words at parting. 



108 THOMAS STARE KING. 

lieved in the final triumph of holiness over all 
sin, — the final and universal reign of goodness, 
— he replied, that he did; that he entered the 
Universalist ministry because he believed that 
doctrine, and that he should not have done so 
had he not believed it." Dr. Ballou was a 
member of this council, and was delighted with 
the matter and the manner of his young friend, 
in answering the questions that were put to 
him. 

The services in the church, on this occasion, 
were uncommonly interesting. Dr. Fro thing- 
ham made the introductory prayer ; Dr. Ballou 
read the Scriptures ; Dr. Dewey preached the 
sermon ; Mr. Alger gave the fellowship of the 
churches ; Mr. Bartol delivered the charge; and 
Dr. Chapin made the address to the society. 
There was an original hymn by Mrs. Caroline 
M. Sawyer, wife of Eev. Dr. Sawyer, of New 
York. The " Christian Eegister " of the 9th 
of December says, " If the prayers offered, the 
truths preached, the sympathies expressed, the 
counsels given, the mutual duties stated, — in 
a word, if the general spirit and tone of this 



'ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 109 

occasion shall have been heartily responded to 
(and we trust and believe that they were) by 
both pastor and people, and shall mould their 
relations to each other and to the world, — no 
higher blessing need to be wished for the society 
worshipping in Hollis Street. Dr. Dewey took 
for his text, Eph. ii. 1 : ? And you hath he quick- 
ened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.' 
The preacher's subject was the condition of the 
world in sin, and the means of its recovery to 
holiness. We trust that a performance so valu- 
able ; so rich in the fruits of a large experience, 
and in the views of a capacious* mind ; so clear 
in its perceptions of what a minister and church 
ought to be ; so comprehensive of the aims, and 
so full of sympathy with the spirit, of Christ, — 
will, with the right hand of fellowship, and the 
noble charge of Mr. Bartol, and the eloquent, 
catholic address to the people by Mr. Chapin, 
be given to the public." 

Many of his Charlestown society were present 
on this occasion, and saw him affectionately 
welcomed by a band of true and noble friends, 
whose unwavering love and cordiality, in a 



110 THOMAS STARR KING. 

ministry of eleven years, he says, "made him 
realize the words of Christian sympathy and 
fellowship." So acceptable were his labors, 
and so great was his reputation, that the society 
had been increasing from the hour of his accept- 
ance. He took a house in Dover Street ; and, 
on his birthday (Dec. 17), he was united in 
marriage with Miss Julia Wiggin, of East Bos- 
ton; and the delights of a happy home were 
joined to the pleasure of seeing his ministerial 
work prosper. He had found a warm friend 
in Dr. Bartol, who thus describes his appear- 
ance : " He had the golden hair, and ruddy 
complexion in a fair skin, which are thought 
to betoken an uncommonly spiritual nature. A 
singular modesty, gentle self-denial, and beam- 
ing good- will, were in his countenance and air. 
The sweetness of his voice, when he spoke, 
added to the clear intelligence of every word ; 
while attending the tones were looks so trans- 
parent, that they served but for expression. 
The fleshly features were only the channels by 
which the immaterial inmate conveyed its wishes 
and thoughts • So extreme, however, in him 



ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. Ill 

was the impression of youth, that those who 
saw him with me said, 'Why, he is a mere 
boy!' But that boy was a man already, as 
liis whole deportment and discourse so signally 
showed. He was a bright, consummate flower 
of the Universalist faith." 

It was natural that his ministerial breth- 
ren of this persuasion should grieve to see the 
fruitage that might follow so beautiful a flower- 
ing apparently destined to inure to the benefit 
of the Unitarians. But he remarked in his let- 
ter of resignation, that his feelings, and his ten- 
dencies of thought, had unfitted him for strong 
'sectarian tendencies. This remark will be found 
sustained by unstudied expressions of his private 
letters for years, which have been cited; and 
there is no evidence that his religious opinions, 
so far as cardinal principles were concerned, 
ever changed. The views he expresses in his 
letters he was in the habit of freely uttering in 
his conversation ; and while, undoubtedly, he 
looked forward with pleasure to a nearer per- 
sonal communion with the eminent men with 
whom he had long enjoyed spiritual sympathy, 



112 THOMAS STARR KING. 

he hoped that his change of position might not 
remove liim beyond the cordial fellowship of his 
present associates. His long-entertained con- 
victions, however, could be known but to few : 
and the feelino; of resrret at tins change found 
expression sometimes in unjust criticism. To 
the last, he remained mrntted for strong secta- 
rian sympathies : and he retained in its early 
freshness his love for the liberal gospel. 

He encountered criticism of a different kind 
from another quarter. The " X ew-England 
Puritan*'* said that the Hollis-street Society, 
having been brought to the verge of dissolution , 
heard of a Universalist preacher by the name 
of King, who was a young man educated in 
the common schools of Portsmouth and Charles- 
town, and, about two years ago, was in some 
business in the Navy Yard. This disparaging 
notice drew from one, who says that he sat by 
his side in the Charlestown schools, a spirited 
plea in demurrer. Admitting the fact in its 
fulness as to the schools, he reasoned that it did 
not follow as a consequence that he was un- 
worthy to occupy the Hollis-street pulpit. Hi.- 



ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 113 

reputation as a scholar and preacher was known 
throughout the land ; one of the wealthiest 
churches in New York sought to secure his 
services ; and he had reached eminence solely 
by his personal industry. " His scholastic at- 
tainments," says Veritas,* "are of such a char- 
acter and extent, as would be honorable to those 
of far more advanced age ; his private char- 
acter is above and beyond even the breath of 
reproach ; and his social qualities are such as 
involuntarily to endear him to all whose privi- 
lege it is to come in contact with him." 

I do not propose to give a history of the 
ministry of Mr. King, — of his life in the pulpit 
or in the homes of his parish, or of his wider 
life in the lecture-rooms of half the land, his 
Fourth-of- July and other occasional efforts, and 
his contributions to the periodicals. These la- 
bors won him hosts of friends. The ripe in 
years and the profound in learning, as well as 
the young and unlettered, bore testimony to the 
charm of his varied gifts in private and in pub- 
lic. On leaving Charlestown, he thought and 

* The article of "Veritas" appeared in the "Boston Post." 



114 THOMAS STARR KIXG. 

talked much of the denominational aspect of 
the step he was about to take ; but he also 
made the great change in life from the compar- 
ative repose of a beautiful self-culture to the 
stir, hurry, and excitement, and the enjoyment 
and exhaustion, of wide public service. This 
was not his ideal. It was simply a necessity.* 
He never embraced the dangerous notion, that 
his faculties of themselves, without labor, would 
carry hirn up to the great intellectual heights. \ 
A longing to renew his real discipline appeared 
to grow upon him. He looked forward to each 
year as to a season of rest ; when, instead, there 
came fresh calls and new responsibilities. "We," 
Edwin P. Whipple says, in his beautiful tribute 
to his genius, "were always after him to write, 
to preach, to lecture, to converse ; we plotted 
lovingly against his leisure ; and, as long as 

* In" Words at Parting," Mr. King says of ''the lecture," 
"I cannot regret that I have heen drawn so widely into that field; 
for it has been simply a necessity." 

f Mr. King says, ' The laws of the human mind are not sus- 
pended or reversed in behalf of religious service. It requires 
training and discipline and severe reflection to reach the highest 
walks of theology, as much as it requires them to reach the 
highest walk in any intellectual pursuit." 



ELEVEN TEARS OF MINISTRY. 115 

there was a bit of life in him, we claimed it 
with all the indiscriminate eagerness of exact- 
ing affection. As soon as a thought sprouted 
in his head, we insisted on having it ; and we 
were all in friendly conspiracy to prevent Ins 
exercise of that patient, concentrated, uninter- 
rupted thinking which conducts to the heights 
of intellectual power."* 

Mr. King, however, always found time to 
act out his moral nature. ?f He was frank, gen- 
erous, and alive to every appeal to his feelings, 
though with none of the morbid sensibility which 
* weeps with those who weep,' but forgets to do 
any thing to relieve suffering." f He was always 
ready to aid others to the best of his power. 
He began this in Charlestown ; he improved 
the opportunities as they multiplied in Boston ; 
and thus he continued to act to the end of 
his life. Dr. Bartol says, "I have known mild, 
affectionate, tender-hearted, and accommodat- 
ing persons, a great many, in my day ; but I 
have never been acquainted with one who would 

* Address at Hollis Street, April 3, 1864. 
t Professor Tweed. 



116 THOMAS STARR KING. 

go farther for you on his feet, toil harder or 
more disinterestedly for you with his hands, or 
sing the hymn of goodness he embodied in his 
life more harmoniously to you with his lips."* 
Rev. Edward E. Hale,f in his fine tribute to 
Mr. King, says, K Somebody told me to-day, 
who lived in the neighborhood of his home, of 
the time when people came up and down Hollis 
Street, and turned into Burroughs Place (Mr. 
King purchased a house and lived here) , and 
how they would ask where Mr. King lived. 
Widows seeking for comfort and aid in support- 
ing their families, poor students, and exiles who 
could not speak a word of English, — all came 
to see Mr. King, and, ringing the door-bell, 
found entrance there; and always, as they came 
back, the step was quicker which was slow be- 
fore, the head was up which was down before, 
and the lips wreathed in his smiles that were sad 
before. That story tells us much of him. I 
have gone there at all hours, morning, noon, 
and night, and always found a welcome : al- 

* " The Unspotted Life." 

t Address at Hollis Street, April 3, 1864. 



ELEVEN YEABS OF MINISTRY. 117 

ways forgetting himself ; willing to do any thing 

you wanted him to do ; willing to do things 

that he was not asked to do." 

His private correspondence shows how near 

his heart was the work of the ministry, and 

how grateful he was at the success which 

crowned his labors. On the 1st of January, 

1854, in wishing his confidential friend through 

life, Mr. Randolph Ryer, of New York, a happy 

new year, he gives expression to sentiments 

alike honorable to the giver and receiver : " We 

are fast getting to be old fogies, Randolph. 

Fourteen years since we met ! What changes ! 

what growths of mind ! what slippings from old 

moorings ! what scootings-out from narrow cir- 
cs o 

cumstances, and little lakes of experience, into 
wider bays, towards the great sea ! Little did 
I imagine, fourteen years ago, that I should 
ever have such a position of trust in the world 
as Providence has gently lifted me up to by the 
easiest inclined plane of continuous accident. 
But here I am, a little wiser than then ; with 
some serious purpose, I believe, hidden some- 
where in my bosom ; with some little gratitude, 



118 THOMAS STARR KING. 

I trust, towards Providence, that has done so 
much better than I deserve ; and with a love 
for a few old friends, which I hope the year 
1874, if it sees here, will find only riper; and 
which I pray may be perfected, if we shall have 
then passed on. You, Randolph, always be- 
lieved that I would come to something, when I 
did not dream that I had the capacity for adorn- 
ing any pedestal. Your attachment has been a 
great comfort to me : your friendship has been 
pure enough to be accounted a choice privilege 
in my life."* 

During the period of his ministry in Boston, 
exciting national questions agitated the public 
mind. On the days when it is customary for 
clergymen to dwell on political subjects, he 
spoke on them from the pulpit as he felt it his 
duty to speak. Thus, in 1852, he arraigned for 
the first time the evil of slavery ; and in 1854, 
on a Fast Day, in a sermon entitled " Precedents 
and Principles," he pressed the formula of free- 

* I am indebted to Mr. Ryer for the use of seventy-two let- 
ters, commencing in 1841, and continuing to the close of Mr. 
King's life. 



ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 119 

dom as an idea, which he had developed in his 
early orations, to its logical results, and urged 
its rigid application as the duty of the hour. 
He was aware that these utterances were dis- 
agreeable to a portion of his congregation, and 
to some of his most cherished friends ; but he 
felt that he could stand in no other than a free 
pulpit, in which he could be true to his convic- 
tions of duty. His private correspondence, 
during his whole ministry, shows that to be a 
preacher of a liberal gospel was the ambition 
of his life. He wrote, in 1855, "How we 
do need good preaching ! Would that I could 
preach extempore ! " 

He denned his denominational position in a 
speech which he made in Faneuil Hall, in 1858, 
at the Annual Festival of the Universalists ; 
having attended the Unitarian Festival the 
previous week. He said, " Would that I might 
be accepted here as the representative of a large 
number of the Unitarian body, who, I know, 
are looking with peculiar interest to the move- 
ments and prosperity of this large denomina- 
tion ! The number is increasing among the 



120 THOMAS STAPJl KIXG. 

Unitarians who feel and say that the two bodies 
are called by Providence to serve the same 
glorious ends. People often ask what the pre- 
cise difference is between the two parties. I 
heard a gentleman say once, that the distance 
between the two parties was the distance be- 
tween two parlors of a house that were sepa- 
rated by folding-doors. Both rooms are under 
the same roof. One-half the folding-doors has 
been thrown open : let the other half be rolled 
back, that the company may be one, or that 
there may be free passage. A friend of mine 
asked me, not long ago, — the question is often 
raised, — whether I am a Universalist or a Uni- 
tarian. I said to him, as I say here, that both 
parties have essentially the same mission and 
objects ; that they ought to be indissolubly 
united, even if they keep separate names, like 
the Siamese twins ; that I should be glad to 
take any place as a small fibre in the ligament 
that should join them ; and that I don't care 
whether they call me Chang or Eng. You have 
heard, perhaps, Mr. Chairman, of the dispute 
between the Universalist and the Unitarian lay- 



ELEVEN YEAES OF MINISTRY. 121 

man as to the theological difference between the 
two parties, and of how the Universalist summed 
it up. 'The Universalist, ' said he, 'believes that 
God is too good to damn us for ever ; and you 
Unitarians believe that you are too good to be 
damned.' Here is the whole controversy in a 
nutshell. Both principles are admirably con- 
densed in that witty sentence."* 

Though the philosophical cast of his theology 
subjected him to sharp criticism from a por- 
tion of the Universalist clergy, and his inti- 
macy with the eminent divines of the Unitarian 
order absorbed much of his time, yet he also 
kept up cordial relations with his early minis- 
terial brethren, and especially with Dr. Chapin 

* This speech thus goes on, immediately after the quotation 
of this witty sentence, to the end, as follows : — 

" The Universalist puts God in the foreground of his creed. 
The earth and our whole system, and the whole universe, are 
bound to the throne, the law, the justice, the love, the heart, of 
the Infinite Father; and we know that evil cannot rule in any 
district of his realm for ever. And the Unitarian sees in every 
man a spark, a breath, an effluence of the Infinite Life, which 
cannot lose its gravitation to its source, and which is the pledge 
of its return, if it exists for ever, to consecration and loyalty. On 
the characteristic principle of either sect, everlasting suffering 
cannot be true. 

" How mean and sad, therefore, are jealousies and strifes be- 



122 THOMAS STARR KING. 

and Dr. Ballou. His confidential intercourse 
with Dr. Ballou continued. About the time he 
made the speech from which I have made free 
citations, he felt moved, he said, to go down 
into Gehenna ; and he sought the guidance of 

tween the two organizations ! I stood in this hall on Tuesday 
evening, when the Unitarians held their festival, and listened 
with great interest to some remarkable words from the lips of a 
man whose face was dyed deep olive by the sun of Hindostan, 
and whose eyes burned with the passion and imagination of 
India. He was a Brahmin convert of a Unitarian missionary, 
and had just arrived here two days since. His name is Jogut 
Chunder Gunkooli. He alluded in his speech to the surprise he 
felt, when, after his first interest in Christianity, a missionary in 
India warned him not to be baptized by a Presbyterian, but to be 
received by himself into the only true church, — the Church of 
England. Said the Brahmin, in perplexity and amazement, 
'What is Presbyterian? what is Church of England? I do not 
know these words: I want to leave idolatry, and be a Christian.' 
There was a base line for you, — six thousand miles of space, 
and a Hindoo brain at the other end, to measure the altitude and 
dignity of the quarrel between two rival forms of church govern- 
ment in Great Britain ! 

" Well, brethren, we are set before the future to do something 
to make a noble and complete theology possible in the new ages 
that are opening. To the Universalist is especially committed 
the doctrine of God's love; to the Unitarians, the worth of human 
nature, and intellectual liberty in the criticism and appreciation 
of Scripture and inspiration. Both parties are facing the future 
with germ-truths; the future, which is longer and more precious 
to Providence than the past, and in which the presence and in- 
spiration of the spirit, that are never denied to the race, will be 



ELEVEN YEARS OF MINIS THY. 123 

his early friend, Dr. Ballou, before all other 
guidance; "knowing," he says, "that, in his 
society, I should be safe from evil spirits." As 
this visit proved eventful, it may be proper 
briefly to dwell on it. 

shown in the giving of more theological truth, as well as in the 
supply of religious vitality. How will the differences and contro- 
versies and jealousies between Unitarians and Universalists look 
a few thousand years hence ? Will they jut up prominent and 
respectable over the common work for the reform of theology and 
the quickening of humanity in which they are equally engaged ? 
Let us seek such a stand-point, now and then, in fancy, to survey 
our divisions. 

u The astronomers tell us, Mr. Chairman, that there are cen- 
tres of systems in the far deeps of space, composed of two suns, 
instead of one such as our planets obey. These twin-suns are 
generally of different and complementary colors. Still further, 
sir, astronomy assures us, that, while our globe and its fellow-orbs 
are circling around our sun, the sun himself and the whole sys- 
tem are sweeping around some far-off, common centre of the 
universe, — perhaps one of those wondrous pairs of stars that 
blaze and flash upon the confines of immensity. So I think the 
parties that now bend around different theological centres are all 
moving in a larger orbit than many of us imagine, — around a 
centre hidden as yet, and for the most part unsuspected. The 
future will reveal it And it seems to me that the central energy 
which is drawing and will harmonize all our movements will be 
disclosed as the twin-truths to which the Unitarian and Univer- 
salist bodies are bearing witness now, but globed in mightier 
mass and richer splendor than our poor interpretations give, — 
the red and green of fraternal suns, — publishing the glory of 
God's love, and the priceless worth of humanity." 



124 THOMAS STARR KINO. 

It happened that Dr. Nehemiah Adams, one 
of the ablest and most respected clergymen of 
Boston, preached in his own church a sermon 
On eternal punishment ; which Mr. King went 
to hear, and then invited the doctor to repeat 
at Hollis Street ; feeling sure that it would do 
the side of the liberal Christians good, "by 
showing," he says, " what Orthodoxy does to a 
sincere, able, and sweet-spirited man, when it 
organizes in him, and strikes through and 
through his nature." Dr. Adams accepted the 
invitation. The church was thronged ; and, af- 
ter its delivery, they had in the pulpit a friendly 
conversation on doctrinal points. "It was a 
glorious time," he writes : " we parted the best 
of friends, and I hope to have many a good 
talk with him." Mr. King answered this ser- 
mon in two discourses, which were printed. 
During their preparation, he consulted Dr. Bal- 
lou, both by letter and by visits to the doctor's 
residence ; and his counsel was the guidance 
Mr. King so generously acknowledged. The 
note is so peculiar, that it seems to require a 
brief recital. 



ELEVEN TEAMS OF MINISTRY. 125 

Dr. Ballou, then the President of Tufts Col- 
lege, had removed his residence from the centre 
of Medford to Walnut Hill, where the new 
institution is located, which is in the centre of 
a panorama of surpassing natural beauty ; and 
at this time he was editing the " Quarterly Re- 
view." A succession of elaborate articles in the 
review, by Mr. King, during the period of the 
Hollis-street ministry , attests the closeness of 
their literary intercourse. Their correspond- 
ence, when Mr. King was at Charlestown, was 
of the most familiar and playful character. In- 
deed, Dr. Ballou was accustomed to write let- 
ters of this nature to Mr. King's father, who 
carried them in his pocket, and read them with 
hearty laughter to his friends ; and their rich 
vein of humor never failed to entertain.* Dr. 

* There must be many of these letters with the private pa- 
pers of Mr. King, among which are his father's manuscripts. I 
am indebted to Professor Tweed, who resides near the late resi- 
dence of Dr. Ballou, for one which he received on a winter morn- 
ing, when the snow had blocked the roads round Walnut Hill, and 
the New-England staple, salt fish, was in request, — a dinner of 
which, by the way, John Hancock used to invite his friends to eat 
on Saturdays. Dr. Ballou was induced to celebrate the virtues of 
this famous dish in verse. On reading the following lines to Mrs. 



126 THOMAS STABS KIXG. 

Ballou was in the habit of sending such things 
also to Dr. Chapin and others. Sometimes 
they would be in verse, and sometimes written 
in half a dozen languages. I have not seen 
one of these things in print. The circle of 
friends was public enough for him. 

Ballou, she asked, "What are you going to do with them?" 
The doctor replied, "I shall send them to Professor Tweed." 
" Why, they are silly," she said. " That's the reason I am going 
to send them," he replied. They were put in an envelope, and 
left at Mr. Tweed's door. Mr. King remarked of them, that, had 
they been written by Leigh Hunt, for humor, versification, and 
fancy, they would have been considered as one of his best effusions. 

Staple food on Walnut Hill ! 
Victual-fund, for drafts at will ! 
Ready in all exigents, 
Minute-man of esculents ! 
Substitute for every dish, — 
Hail, all hail to thee, Salt Fish ! 

When the rain comes pouring down, 
And no market-carts from town ; 
Nought abroad but roaring gale, 
Streaming hills, and flooded Tale, — 
" What for dinner do you wish ? " 
Asks the wife. The same, — Salt Fish. 

When the winter's smothering blow 

Drifts the roads, fence-high, with snow, 

Shrouding Nature all in white, 

As for her funereal rite. — 

If a dinner-thought intrude 

On our awful solitude. 

Can we feel blue devilish ? 

Blest resourse ! there's some Salt Fish. 






ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 127 

This will explain the wording of the following 
note to Dr. Ballou, who was the author of that 
careful and admirable work, "The Ancient His- 
tory of Universalism : " — 

My dear Dr. B., — Boston, May 11, 1858. 

The Great Hosee, — 

I have been re-reading lately a celebrated work 
by some learned and perverse heretic of the last 

Rain nor snow nor cold nor heat 

May disturb our high retreat : 

All within is cheery still 

In our homes on Walnut Hill. 

Does a friend or guest drop in 

Just about the hour to dine ? 

Though the larder's void, what matters ? 

Out with cups and knives and platters ; 

Help him, till no more he wish", 

From thy bounty, Salt Fish ! 

Thou of eatables the chief, — 
Whether called Atlantic beef, 
Mutton caught at Newfoundland^ 
Poultry from the ocean-strand, 
Venison from the shoaly banks, — 
Still for thee we render thanks, 
thou universal dish ! 
Hail, all hail, to thee, Salt Fish ! 

Blessings on thy face antique, 

Mummy ichthyologic, 

Drawn from caves beneath the tides 

Older than the Pyramids ! 

What a wondrous power thou hast, 

That can make us feast and fast, 

Blending lean and hungry Lent 

With Carnival incontinent, 

Making all days Fridayish, 

Thaumaturgical Salt Fish! 



128 THOMAS STABB KING. 

century, to whom the gods had not denied the gift 
of a most excellent English style ; to wit, " The 
Ancient History of Universalism." I find that my 
principles have become somewhat corrupted by the 
show of fairness and erudition and the insidious style 
of the awful volume. After perusing it, I am in 
doubt touching the doctrine and logic of Rev. Dr. 
Nehemiah South-side Calvin Adams. 

Yet I fear to trust myself unreservedly to the 
statements and implications of a book evidently 
written by an oily and plausible but reckless and 
godless man. How much better to be under the 
guidance of a sleek and serious Christian, who does 
not tamper with the Holy Word, and who admires 
the arrangements of this world as the neat and 
symmetrical portico of hell ! 

Yet three points in the wily volume above men- 
tioned disturb me, and forbid that serene yielding of 
my intellect to the influence of the saintly and cheer- 
ing Nehemiah, which seems so advisable. The 
treacherous writer asserts (p. 45) that the Sibylline 
Oracles use the word " everlasting " concerning the 
punishment of the wicked, — still teaching universal 
restoration. Also (p. 88) that an old scamp, a spu- 
rious Capon -Christian, an Egyptian gelding, — the 
father (so far as a wretch in his situation can be 
called father, in a correct use of language), at any 
rate, the Origen, of Universalism, — used the same 



ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 129 

word touching the overhauling which scoundrels will 
experience in the life to come. Still further, the 
pestilent book affirms (pp. 179, 180) that Gregory 
of Nyssa knew so little of Greek as to use " ever- 
lasting " again of temporal discipline ; and also that 
the wicked are to be saved by means of everlasting 
purgation. 

Now, I cannot think that the writer of the vol- 
ume, or even these old numskulls, are to be trusted 
against Dr. Adams. But I do want to know, before 
I settle finally into a poor opinion of their scholar- 
ship, whether it is the word aionios, which in three 
instances they so ignorantly apply to that punish- 
ment which ... is to be literally unending. Can 
you inform me touching this matter ? If you have 
any knowledge of the puerile but pernicious publi- 
cation referred to, will you drop me a line as soon 
as possible? and believe me, 

Yours in suspense, T. S. King. 

I am to preach a sermon next Sunday evening, in 
which I wish to use the fact. 

I am informed that Mr. King received Dr. 
Ballou's criticisms on the reply to Dr. Adams 
while it was in manuscript. Mr. King, with 
characteristic frankness and generosity, ac- 
knowledged his indebtedness to his friend in 



130 THOMAS STARR KING. 

this matter, in a speech which he made in the 
following June, at the Annual Universalist Fes- 
tival in Faneuil Hall. " Kecently, sir," he said, 
K I have been associated with him (Dr. Ballou) 
in a most singular and important way. You 
know that Dante, when he wished to make his 
imaginative descent into hell, obtained the guid- 
ance of the spirit of Virgil. He felt sure that 
no harm could befall him in those dreadful re- 
gions, if the pale and cultured poet should attend 
him through its awful circles. Well, sir, recent- 
ly, under the stimulus of a celebrated Orthodox 
preacher in my neighborhood, I desired to look 
into the dreadful regions of the under-world. 
I felt moved to go down into Gehenna. Not 
daring to go alone, I obtained the guidance of 
Dr. Ballou, knowing that in his society I should 
be safe from evil spirits. To my amazement, 
when we reached the place where Gehenna 
should begin, it was gone. It seemed to be 
scattered, dissipated, swept into nonentity, by 
the magic of his clear and penetrative eye. 
There was no lower jail beneath the earth for 
the torment of imprisoned souls. We found 



ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTBY. 131 

that the world was round ; that there was sun- 
light and air beneath it as above it ; that Ge- 
henna was a Rabbinic myth ; and that the globe 
was rolling through a universe pervaded by 
God's law, and everywhere luminous with his 
love." 

Mr. King's two discourses in reply to Dr. 
Adams were published under the title of " The 
Doctrine of Endless Punishment, for the Sins 
of this Life, Unchristian and Unreasonable." 
They were widely noticed by the press, and 
elicited elaborate criticism. They were received 
with favor by one portion of Universalists. 
The " Quarterly "—not then edited by Dr. Bal- 
lou — said of them, " We find that an old topic 
seems new, when treated by a thinker, from 
whose mind fresh statements, new illustrations, 
and poetic imagery, come as the overflow of a 
fountain which is always being replenished." 
The " Trumpet," however, objected to the way 
in which Mr. King handled the argument from 
texts in support of universal restoration ; and 
its editor elaborated his criticism in an article in 
the " Quarterly." The " American Theological 



132 THOMAS STARR KING. 

Review " (Orthodox) as earnestly controverted 
Mr. King's positions as to things vital in the 
Orthodox creed. I pass over theological points. 
Both of these articles recognized the position 
which Mr. King had reached as a man, a lec- 
turer, and a preacher. The Universalist critic 
(Rev. Thomas TThittemore) wove a brief re- 
view of his life into his animadversions, saying 
that he was a remarkable man ; that he had 
great knowledge for his years ; that he had a 
peculiarly philosophical mind, and had studied 
the modern languages ; that he had read the 
philosophers of Germany and France as well as 
of England and the United States ; and that he 
embraced Universalisni as a philosophy rather 
than as a revelation. " Soon after his settle- 
ment in Charlestown," the editor of the " Trum- 
pet" said, "he began to attract a large share of 
public attention. One or two secular and patri- 
otic lectures, which he delivered on public occa- 
sions, gave scope for his poetic conceptions, 
beautiful style, and his eloquence ; and thus 
largely increased his fame." The critic in the 
" Theological Review," in remarking on " the 



ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 133 

intellectual habit, taste, or genius, or whatever 
it was," which secured for Mr. King "his un- 
rivalled popularity," said that " he was known 
and esteemed as a very brilliant rhetorician." 
" He astonishes," the " Review " says, " and 
charms his hearers by a rare mastery over sen- 
tences. He is a skilful word-marshal ; and 
who does not like to see a fine muster? Hence 
his popularity as a lyceum-lecturer. However 
much of elegant leisure the more solid and 
instructive lecturers may have, Mr. King is 
always wanted. He is, in some respects, the 
most popular writer and preacher of the two 
denominations which he equally represents ; be- 
ing a sort of soft ligament between the Chang 
of Universalism, and the Eng of Unitarianism, 
with the largest liberties of both ; drawing from 
the best life of both, and shedding back upon 
each, with judicial impartiality, his coruscation 
of words, and showers of pearls. We are con- 
fident he will acknowledge the justness of the 
compliment, even if he objects to this public 
method of offering it, when we call him a grand 
master of stvle." 



134 THOMAS STARR KINO. 

The article suggests a remark on Mr. King's 
rhetoric. In early life, he was in the habit of 
expressing admiration of Daniel Webster "as 
a grand master of style : " his taste was for the 
simplest mode of expression ; and he aimed 
at ease and clearness. Some of his later pro- 
ductions evince want of care, and indicate his 
hurried way of life. It is remarked by Pro- 
fessor Tweed, that Mr. King's images were not 
the dress, but the body, of thought. " Every, 
thing in Nature," Mr. Tweed says, "was to him 
but a type of some spiritual truth. The awe 
inspired by mountain-scenery was immediately 
translated to reverence. A scene of beauty 
was the smile of God. It was not lack of 
imagination, but only the white light of his 
intellect, that prevented his being a poet. His 
power of expression exceeded that of any other 
man with whom I was ever acquainted ; and 
the beauty of his style was inseparable from the 
sentiment of which it was a part. His images 
were all illustrations, — not the dress, but the 
body, of thought ; and the severest taste would 
find it difficult to prune without constantly 



ELEVEN YEABS OF MINISTRY. 135 

touching the quick." While the irony of the 
"Review" was going through the press, Mr. 
King addressed the following note to Dr. Bal- 
lou, which has something about style : — 

Boston, Oct. 15, 1858. 

Mi dear Doctor, — I received the October 
number of the " Universalist Quarterly " yesterday, 
and was made wiser and happier by reading your 
article on the " Doctrine of Necessity." It is a noble 
and masterly paper, — really a thoroughly artistic 
piece of work in the reasoning line ; not a specimen 
of logic, but of reasoning. It puts me in mind of 
those costly gold chains which fasten gentlemen's 
watches to the vest-button, — firm and heavy as "a 
solid piece of metal, yet linked so finely, that it is 
supple, elastic, and graceful along the whole line. 

Really, it gives me joy to see such consummate 
workmanship in our days of flippant composition 
and sleazy thought. I don't know anybody in New 
England whose handling of the profound elementary 
questions of religious philosophy is so nearly kindred 
with the sinewy masters of English thought. One 
could pass from your writing to Bishop Butler's 
without any feeling of stepping down a mental plane. 
As to patience, absence of all pretence, and easy 
command of domestic and sturdy Saxon, your philo- 
sophic papers revive my admiration of the style of 



136 THOMAS STARR KING. 

Hume's " Essays ; " which, as to mere style, have 
always seemed to me models (I mean Sceptic, not 
Thaumaturgus, Hume). 

Are there any of the Universalist dalliers with 
"Necessity" capable of seeing how thoroughly you 
have consumed their system, smoke aud all? The 
completeness of your demolition, — if we are to trust 
the primal beliefs and intuitions of our nature, — and 
the method of doing it, by slowly and accurately 
evolving the system itself into symmetry, give me 
a rich and humorous satisfaction. It is judicial and 
juicy. 

Hoping to see you before long, either here or in 
Medford, I am, as ever, 

Tours, T. S. King. 

Mr. King was now connecting Ins name with 
ravine and valley, with pool and flume and 
notch, and every peak, of the far-famed White 
Hills. He passionately loved the sea and the 
mountain. "See him," Dr. Bellows says, "at 
the mountains and on the sea-shore, — and he 
was almost an equal lover of both, — and you 
would take him for some enthusiastic devotee 
of scenery; or some rapt naturalist, who had 
spent his whole life in studying shells or mosses 



ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 137 

or algse ; or with whom the stars, the clouds, 
and the shadows were the only subjects of 
worthy meditation."* Such was his religious 
genius, that he had more than a mere aesthetic 
eye. The awe inspired by the grand in Nature 
was translated into reverence; the scene of 
beauty, into the smile of God.f 

He first visited the White Hills at the age of 
thirteen, probably with his father ; but I have 
no facts as to this visit. His intimacy with 
Dr. Ballou undoubtedly cherished a love of 
this remarkable region. The doctor was also 
an enthusiast for mountain-scenery. He had 
made himself familiar with all the great ranges 
of the earth : he knew the Alps so accurately, 
before his visit to them, that, Mr. King re- 
marked, he could probably have told precisely 
where he was if he had been dropped from 
a balloon into some one of the passes or val- 
leys of Switzerland; and he repeatedly visit- 
ed and minutely observed the White Hills. 
He embodied in his " Quarterly " for April, 

* Dr. Bellows's Discourse, May 1, 1864. 
f Professor Tweed. 



138 THOMAS STABB KIXG. 

1846, liis fondness for them, in a beautiful and 
eloquent paper. On this subject I know no- 
thing, winch had appeared, superior to it ; and 
well remember Mr. King's enthusiasm for the 
"White Hills at the time of its publication. 

I have no memorial of any visit he may have 
made to this region prior to 1849 ; an account 
of which he described in two letters addressed 
to Mr. Randolph Ever. They are too charac- 
teristic to be omitted : — 

Boston, July 30, 1849. 

Mr dear Randolph, — You are probably aware 
that it is some time since I wrote to you. ... I have 
been to the White Mountains. ... I started a week 
ago last Thursday morning, in company with Mr. 
Tweed. ... At Lowell, we found two other gentle- 
men ; . . . and we kept together happily until our 
return. About noon of that day, we arrived on the 
shore of Lake TTinnipiseogee ; which, in the Indian 
tongue, means a the smile of the Great Spirit." The 
name is most appropriate ; for more lovely scenery 
than meets the eye, as you cross the lake in the little 
steamer, certainly cannot be found on this glorious 
planet. All the way it is equal to the most picturesque 
views which the Hudson affords. ^Ve arrived at 
Centre Harbor, a little village which skirts the head 






ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 139 

of the lake, in season for dinner ; and remained there, 
from choice, all night. There is a fine solitary moun- 
tain in this village, called Red Hill, 2,500 feet high, 
and quite steep, which we ascended on Friday morn- 
ing ; and the view from which amply repays the delay 
in the journey, and the exhaustive toil of a two-hours' 
ascent. Just think of going up ten Bunker-hill Mon- 
uments, piled one upon another, and without stone 
steps cut regularly to facilitate the ascent ! On Friday 
afternoon, at three o'clock, we started in an over- 
loaded stage for Conway, which is thirty-four miles 
from Centre Harbor. The road is rather difficult 
for stage-travel, especially when there are seventeen 
people in and on a stage that carries nine inside, 
each person having a large trunk : ' but some of the 
views are grand ; for the road lies in a valley that 
is flanked by the Ossipee and the Sandwich ranges 
of hills. We didn't travel much over four miles an 
hour ; and nine o'clock at night found us at the vil- 
lage of Ossipee, thirteen miles from Conway. Here 
we enjoyed two delightful classes of sensations. The 
first was experienced at the supper-table : the last 
was of a rarer and a higher kind. The highest and 
last summit of the Ossipee range overlooks the little 
tavern where we stopped. The top is quite round ; 
and, upon its whole surface, the woods were on fire ! 
Thunder-clouds overhung the mountain, so that it 
was dark as Egypt; and, standing 2,500 feet be- 



140 THOMAS STAKE KING. 

neath, we saw the glare and smoke of the cone, 
which seemed the crater of a mad volcano, that was 
about to pour flaming desolation on the valley be- 
neath. It was a sight never to be forgotten. In 
spite of the darkness, danger, and rain, we kept on 
for Conway, which we reached at half-past eleven ; 
and where, notwithstanding the damp, sultry heat, 
and the bed-bugs, we slept soundly till morning. I 
ought to say, however, that three miles of the road, 
from Ossipee to Conway, is through the woods ; 
and, for more than a mile, the trees and brush each 
side of the stage were burning and falling as we 
passed. It was a glorious sight ; none the less ex- 
citing from the imminent danger, at times, of great 
pine-trees, falling, as they burned, across the stage or 
the path. Four th-of- July fireworks are nothing to 
the pyrotechny of hemlock-trees, when the blaze 
strikes their foliage, and wreathes them with flame. 
On Saturday morning, we left Conway for the 
Notch in the White Mountains, — about twenty- 
four miles. Fog hung around the distant summits, 
so that we lost the grandest views which this ride 
affords ; but it was wild and inspiring enough as 
we saw it : and about noon we began to be hemmed 
in by crags, and lines of peaks, which prevented 
any view for more than a mile ahead. It was after 
dinner, in the afternoon, that we reached the Xotch ; 
and here a person might as well drop the pen. To 



ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 141 

any one who has not seen wild mountain-scenery, 
language has no measures of meaning that will repre- 
sent the physical grandeur and the strange impres- 
sions that break at once upon the eye and the soul 
in a spot like that. All rhetoric is out of place ; and, 
if it were not, it would be baffled. It is the place 
to read the Psalms and the Book of Isaiah ; to feel 
our insignificance, and the glory of the Creator. As 
you approach the Notch, the mountains seem to bar 
all further progress ; when suddenly a turn in the 
road leads you between two mountains, that sweep 
quite sharply down to the same point at the base. A 
little further on, the valley widens some ; and, for a 
mile on either side, ridges that are perfectly level on 
the top, and whose barren sides are almost perpen- 
dicular, line the path, and look down with a steady 
frown. Thunder-clouds rested upon all the moun- 
tains in the vicinity, as we approached the Notch ; 
and, just after we entered, one peal of thunder rolled 
along the summit of the right-hand ridge, nearly 
3,000 feet above us, with a dead, hollow sound, like 
a ball of lead that weighed a hundred tons. We 
were standing directly in front of the Willey House, 
near which, in 1826, the Willey Family were over- 
whelmed by the awful land-slide, which came at mid- 
night, during a terrible tempest, and ruined every 
thing around but the cottage, above which it divided, 
and which it spared. They ran from the house for 



142 THOMAS ST ABE KIXG. 

safety, and were buried in thirty feet of rocks and 
graveL Never again do I expect to have such feel- 
ings overpower me as all the scenes and associations 
at the Notch conspire to excite in a soul that is at all 
capable of being moved. 

"VTe passed through these wild passes to Craw- 
ford's quiet Notch House, where we spent the sab- 
bath. Eev. Mr. Thomas, of New Bedford, preached 
in the parlor in the morning ; and. in the afternoon, 
I walked back to the TTilley House, and staid till 
nearlv dark. God ! how wonderful are thv works ! 
One passage of Scripture seems to be written on 
every cliff, and echoed to the soul from every ridge : 
u Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever 
thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from 
everlasting to everlasting, thou art God."' I have 
not time nor room to write you of the ascent of MJL 
Washington, but will reseiwe it for to-morrow. I am 
in fine health : and trusting that you are too, and 
sending all manner of messages to our friends, I 

am, until to-inorrow, Tours truly, 

Stare, 

Bostox. July SI. 1849. 
Mt dear Randolph. — Perhaps I am boring 
you with this account of a journey into a region 
where you never travelled : but it is pleasant to 
write it ; and. if you do not go to California, (from 
which Heaven preserve you !) I am determined that 



ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 143 

you shall go to the "White Mountains another year. 
The range which goes by the distinctive name of 
the "White Mountains consists of eight summits, 
which rise directly back of the Notch House, and a 
few miles north of the Notch itself. The highest of 
these peaks is Mt. Washington, which is the fifth on 
the range, and is 6,200 feet above the level of the 
sea. The valley itself, however, from which the range 
rises, is 2,000 feet above the ocean ; so that the real 
height of Mt. "Washington, above the ground where 
it stands, is 4,200 feet. We started on our journey 
Monday morning, July 23, at eight o'clock, on horse- 
back. There were twelve of the party, — ladies and 
gentlemen, and two guides. The first two miles of 
the way is a steady and steep ascent through the 
woods on the side of Mt. Clinton. The horses were 
sure-footed, the air was delicious, and our spirits 
were high. After gaining the rocky top of Clinton, 
the summit of Mt. Pleasant rises about a mile ahead, 
smoothed and arched precisely like the dome of our 
Boston State House. Descending the peak of Clin- 
ton, we wound around the head of Mt. Pleasant, 
riding along the brink of precipices that made the 
hair stand up, until we reached the rising ground that 
led to the peak of Mt. Franklin. Directly ahead 
of the summit of Franklin, and still higher up, ap- 
pears the double head of Mt. Munroe ; and, about 
a mile beyond Munroe, the cone of Mt. Washington 



144 THOMAS STARR KING. 

rises with a seemingly easy slope, and apparently 
200 feet higher than its neighboring summits. The 
passage from Franklin to Munroe I shall never for- 
get. It is the wildest and the grandest ride, proba- 
bly, which can be found any where except upon the 
Alps. At one spot, the horse-path is made along the 
edge of a rock which overhangs an abyss that yawns 
to the very base of the mountain ; and, for miles 
around, the sides and valley of the immense ravine 
are filled with pine-trees, whose sombre, monotonous 
verdure does not much relieve the sublime terror of 
the scene. And, at one place, we rode upon the ridge 
from which two valleys sloped away, and which com- 
manded views for miles, to the right and left, among 
the hills by which we were surrounded. A horse, 
belonging to one of a party that ascended after us 
the same day, in going down one of the perilous 
descents on the edge of a gulf, went over, and struck 
upon his back on the top of a stunted pine-tree, 
about twenty feet below. This broke his fall ; and he 
was drawn up safely, and ridden the rest of the way. 
The rider had fortunately dismounted, from fear, 
before the adventure. 

Having passed the peaks which I have mentioned, 
we gained the slope of Mt. Washington, and began 
the ascent of its cone. From the distance, it seemed 
as though the peak was quite smooth, and that the 
ascent must be easy. But when we reached the 



ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 145 

mountain itself, and saw the other peaks below us, 
we found that the head of "Washington was in itself 
a mountain, and that the journey to the top would be 
the most toilsome part of the way. The whole sum- 
mit was covered with green rocks, which lay like chips 
from some giant ship-yard. However, in about half 
an hour we succeeded, and stood upon the highest 
land this side the Mississippi, at half-past eleven. We 
were three hours and three-quarters in making the 
whole ascent: the distance is seven or eight miles. 
"We dined on the summit, and found plenty of clear 
cold water bubbling up among the barren rocks, which 
was more refreshing than the spirit which everybody 
takes along. The day was very clear, and the view 
was most magnificent. On one side, we could see 
away off into Maine ; on the west, the Green Moun- 
tains of Vermont dotted the horizon ; to the north, the 
land of Canada is visible ; and to the south-east, on 
a very clear day, the Atlantic, near Portsmouth and 
Portland, looks like a silver line upon the edge of 
the sky. But the grandeur of the prospect consists 
in the mountain-peaks and ranges, by which for miles 
on every hand the country is broken. It is as if the 
ocean, when the storm had lashed its billows into 
enormous size, .had suddenly become hardened, and 
stood with upreared granite waves. It was a sight to 
be dreamed about, and recalled, and mused upon : it 
cannot be described. We sang " Old Hundred " after 
10 



146 THOMAS STARR KING. 

dinner ; and, having remained an hour on the summit, 
began the descent. It is about as difficult, and more 
tiresome, to go down as to go up. I walked more 
than half the way. When we reached the summit of 
Mt. Clinton, on the return, it began to rain ; and most 
of the party were drenched when they reached the 
tavern. I had a great-coat with me, and an extra 
pair of pants, and kept dry. On Tuesday morning, 
we started for Franconia Notch, which we reached 
at three o'clock, p. m. The scenery here is magnifi- 
cent. Perhaps you remember that "the Old Man 
of the Mountain" is visible here. On the jutting 
brow of a crag, 2,000 feet above the road, there is 
the profile of an old man, with a Roman helmet on 
his head. The outline is perfect, the head colossal, 
and the effect, as you may imagine, grand beyond 
description. There are very many objects of interest 
at this Notch, which I have not room to describe, 
but which I hope to revisit, in company with you, 
before many years. On Thursday morning, we 
started for home from Franconia ; and arrived Thurs- 
day night, at half-past eight o'clock. I am homesick 
for the mountains. But to-morrow I leave for Rock- 
port, to spend five weeks by the seashore. . . . 

Your sincere friend, _ Starr. 

Mr. Kino* continued his visits to this region. 
In 1853, he began to print accounts of his 



ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY 147 

explorations, in the "Boston Transcript;" and 
having for ten years, in winter as well as sum- 
mer, viewed its grace and glory, he embodied 
the results of his experience in a noble volume, 
entitled "The White Hills, — their Legends, 
Landscape, and Poetry." This was published 
in 1849, with this dedication: "To Edwin 
Percy Whipple this book is inscribed with ad- 
miration and gratitude." It was received with 
great favor. Among the notices of it is an 
interesting and appreciative article, by Pev. 
Thomas B. Fox, in the " Christian Examiner." 
He remarks, "These four hundred pages of 
descriptive discourse about 'the cathedral dis- 
trict of New Hampshire ' contain the most elab- 
orate attempt to picture to the mind's eye the 
grandeur and beauty of natural scenery which 
has graced our native literature. In compre- 
hensiveness of outline, and fulness of filling up, 
in unity of purpose, and abundance and variety 
of matter, it stands alone as the most finished 
work of the kind, — a volume of aesthetic teach- 
ing, thus far without a rivaL" This production 
is far more than a description of the White 



148 TE031AS STARR KINO. 

Hills : its rich descriptions of every variety of 
landscape apply to all natural scenes, and bring 
out their inmost meaning. There is much of 
himself in this volume, of his rare spiritual 
insight, — much of what his cultured and r eV- 
erent eye saw in the beauty and the grandeur 
that God is creating every day. 

While this volume was going through the 
press, Mr. King was contemplating the great 
change of removing from Boston to San Fran- 
cisco. " He had," Dr. Bellows says, " become 
conscious that the strain on his powers was 
more than he could bear. His double pro- 
fession as preacher and lecturer exacted more 
from his always delicate physique than it could 
any longer safely supply. His personal popu- 
larity, and the social attentions he received, 
drained still more Ins quick and lavish nature, 
always willing to do its capable part in the en- 
tertainment of all companies."* And, above 
all, Dr. Bellows says he needed a support by 
which he could be relieved from the necessity 
of incessant lecturing. As this became known, 

* Discourse, May 1, 1864. 



ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 149 

several societies endeavored to obtain his ser- 
vices, the chief of which were Brooklyn, Chi- 
cago, Cincinnati, and San Francisco. The last 
society was represented to be tottering. Partly 
to benefit the cause of the liberal gospel in 
California, and " partly to get rest from writing, 
and scattering labor," — his own words, — he 
was from the first inclined to accept offers made 
to him by the society in San Francisco. " The 
White-Mountain book," he writes Sept. 3, 1859, 
to his confidential friend, Randolph Ryer, "will 
be out for the holidays in good shape. It 
will be a beauty. ... I have lots of news to 
tell you, — among other things, that I shall 
probably move to San Francisco." Drs. Put- 
nam, Peabody, Bellows, and others, indorsed 
the call from Cincinnati, "with very urgent 
and wise appeals," he says ; but he decided at 
length in favor of California, and he tendered 
his resignation as the pastor of the Hollis-street 
Society. 

The society were reluctant to accept an un- 
conditional resignation ; and at length, instead, 
persuaded him to consider himself as their pas- 



150 THOMAS STARR KING. 

tor, and take a leave of absence for fifteen 
months : it being understood, that if, at any- 
time during this period, he should decide to 
return to Boston, his parishioners would claim 
his services. These proceedings make a beauti- 
ful record of faithfulness, alike honorable to the 
pastor and the society. 

The Hollis-street Church, on Sunday, March 
25, 1860, was crowded with an eager and at- 
tentive audience, to listen to Mr. King's fare- 
well sermon. He invited Rev. C. H. Leonard, 
the pastor of the Universalist Society in Chel- 
sea, to be with him on this occasion. n I know 
not how I can go through with it," Mr. King 
said to his friend as he was about to enter the 
desk. "You cannot go through with it; you 
will be carried through," was the reply. This 
sermon was printed under the title of " Words 
at Parting." It is a review of his ministry of 
eleven years ; and, if in style it bears the mark 
of haste, it is rich in spiritual things. The out- 
ward prosperity of the parish occupies the first 
portion of the discourse. "From a fragment 
whose very fibres were bruised," the society 



ELEVEN YEABS OF MINISTRY. 151 

became, a few years after his ministry com- 
menced, "a strong-limbed body," and its pros- 
perity continued. After alluding, he said, for 
encouragement of the society, to its outward 
condition, he proceeded to dwell on higher and 
more fitting meditations. He had ever seen in 
his own inner nature a reflection of the law of 
spiritual life ; and he observed the inner life 
of his parish, to discern in it the marks of the 
ordering and outlook of the Infinite. These 
beautiful "Words" make a record of the inspi- 
ration which he drew from the divine that was 
passing before him in the ordinary, homely 
facts of every-day affairs. He looked upon 
religion, not as a thing apart from, but as in- 
corporated with, life : it was thinking rightly, 
aspiring naturally, loving purely ; and only the 
supreme heights were reached in the beauty and 
peace of Christian natures. This was his 
Christianity. He said that each life was a par- 
agraph in its lasting evidences ; each pew had 
supplied a chapter of the perpetual gospel ; 
and its laws had been revealed in individual 
unworthiness or obedience, in individual degra- 



152 THOMAS STARR KIXG. 

elation or attainment. "This," he said, "is the 
broad foundation of the Liberal Christianity I 
have tried to preach, and have more and more 
deeply believed." And he reasoned back from 
right living to a concession of the vein of vital 
tmth there is in whatever organization it is 
found. "Xothing but pure truth, brethren," 
he said, " can produce noble life ; " and, as 
every sect produces noble lives, so the air of 
the Spirit bathes every party in Christendom. 
" The principle on which I insist," he said, " ac- 
knowledges and protects every class of believers 
that bears a separate name." Thus the broad 
views, the faith and the philosophy, which were 
early grasped, pervade these " "Words at Part- 
ing." They are imbued with the serene spirit 
of Christian fellowship. As a farewell utter- 
ance, they befitted the quiet communings of 
the "normal" sabbath, the perfection of which 
is symbolized as the sweet day of Xature, — 

" So cool, so calm, so bright, 
The bridal of the earth and sky." 

The occasion attracted many who were not 
members of the societv. One of them, in re- 



ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 153 

marking on "this noble and manly, and yet 
tender and modest, review" by Mr. King of his 
ministry, said, that a third party might speak 
of the fact, " that, rapid as has been the growth 
of his genius as a fervid and brilliant preacher, 
it has been fully matched by a growth as rapid 
in his solid attainments as a theologian ; and 
that his rhetoric, opulent as it is in all those 
picturesque images and vivid phases which 
seize upon the fancy, is none the less the 
guarded expression of a large, clear, full, and 
well-disciplined mind. They could say, that, 
excellent as were his powers of acquisition, of 
thought, and of speech, there was something 
still more excellent in the genial, loving, and 
cheerful spirit from which his powers derived 
their finest life, drew their richest aspiration, 
and received their noblest impulse. They could 
point to a long service as a Christian minister, 
in which the pulpit had never been controlled 
by the pews, and in which the pews could never 
complain that any opinions, however unpala- 
table, had ever been tainted by acrid passions 
unbecoming a Christian minister to feel. They 



154 THOMAS STABB KING, 

could bear their testimony, that he had always 
been bold and independent, and at the same 
time been free from the wilfulness and nialior- 
nity into which boldness and independence are 
sometimes stung by opposition. They could 
appeal to thousands in proof of the assertion, 
that though in charge of a large parish, and 
with a lecture-parish which extended from Ban- 
gor to St. Louis, he still seemed to have time 
for every good and noble work, to be open to 
every demand of misfortune, tender to every 
pretension to weakness, responsive to every call 
of sympathy, and true to every obligation of 
friendship ; and they will all indulge the hope, 
that California, cordial as must be the welcome 
she extends to him, will still not be able to 
keep him long from Massachusetts." 




A MONTH OF INTERVAL. 




T has been seen from public recogni- 
tions, that, from the day of the ordi- 
nation of Thomas Starr King at 
Charlestown, there was no pause in the growth 
of his power and reputation. He was not 
considered as profoundly learned ; he was not 
regarded as a remarkable orator ; he was not a 
great writer ; nor can his unrivalled popularity 
be ascribed to his fascinating social or intel- 
lectual gifts. "It was the hidden, interior man 
of the heart, the invisible character behind all 
the rich possessions, intellectual and social, of 
this gifted man, that gave him his real power 
and skill to control the wills, and to move the 
hearts, and to win the unbounded confidence 

[155] 



156 THOMAS STARR KING. 

and affection, of his fellow-beings."* He was 
one of the magnetic men, — a modern and 
Christian Alcibiades. Xone knew him but to 
love him. And to-day an Agassiz talks as 
lovingly of him as do the little circle of his first 
and constant and humble friends who caressed 
his bright boyhood. f 

I have made a selection from the public 
acknowledgments of Mr. Kind's work, because 
eulogistic notices by the press, when they are 
just, add vastly to personal power ; and it was 
the reports of his efforts, as far as the call was 
of man, that really severed his relations with 
the East, and raised him to the loftier stage 
of the West.} He preached his last sermon in 
the Hollis-street Church on the 25th of March, 
1860 ; and his first sermon in San Francisco on 
the 29th of April. In this interval, when he 
was tried by the fire of prosperity, there are 
testimonials rarely seen in the career of a man 
of thirty-five, who filled no public office, who 
had only fought manfully the battle of life, 

* Dr. Bellows. 

t Rev. T. B. Fox in the " Christian Examiner." J lb. 



A MONTH OF INTERVAL. 157 

and who had aimed to do his best in meeting 
the duties of the hour. 

The large-hearted society of Hollis-street 
Church, besides presenting him with a hand- 
some sum of money, gave him a Farewell 
Festival at Nassau Hall, which was tastefully 
decorated with flowers for the occasion. There 
was a profusion of them where the pastor and 
his wife stood to receive their friends. It was 
the fullest social gathering there had been of 
the society, and many presented beautiful bou- 
quets. There was an entertainment ; but no 
speeches were made. I saw him last the day 
before he left Boston, when he spoke in grateful 
terms of the bearing towards him of his society, 
and of the compliment he had received from 
New York. 

This was an invitation to attend, as the prin- 
cipal guest, a breakfast, which the laymen of 
the several Unitarian churches in New York 
and vicinity proposed to give to their clergymen 
and their wives. Among the Unitarian min- 
isters of Boston who were invited were Rev. 
Drs. Dewey and Hedge, who, in their replies 



158 THOMAS STARR KING. 

to invitations, dwelt on the character of Mr. 
King. Dr. Dewey wrote, "Among the most 
honored guests at your social breakfast, you 
have one who is leaving us for a distant shore. 
I wish I could speak of him as I should if he 
were not present with you, and could express' 
the feeling which I entertain, on every account 
and in every way, of affectionate admiration for 
him. I know of nothing in Boston that I could 
more reluctantly lose from it. But I trust his 
way will be prosperous in his going and return- 
ing; and, if our California brothers shall receive 
him half as gladly as we shall welcome him 
back, I am sure that they and he and we shall 
be satisfied."* Dr. Hedge wrote, "King is 
with you for a parting word, and your fraternal 
benediction on his way. Happy soul ! himself 
a benediction wherever he goes, benignly dis- 
pensing the graces of his life wherever he car- 
ries the wisdom of his word ; a living evangel 
of kind affections ; better than all prophecy and 
all knowledge. Fain would I be with you, 
were it only to bask yet a little in that sunny 

* Letter, dated Boston, March 30, 1860. 



A MONTH OF INTERVAL. 159 

presence, as the voyager on the first night out 
climbs up the rigging to catch yet one more 
glimpse of the parting day-star, already lost to 
the deck. Heaven knows how much of the 
sunshine of my life that Starr takes with him 
on his westering course ! A more genial nature 
I have not known. He seems to me a cross 
between the Yankee and the Greek, uniting so 
much of Hellenic cheer with genuine American 
tact. Our Jonathan — Lycidas, so I call him 
— who can fill the void he leaves ? May that 
wondrous land of his destination receive gladly, 
and with honor meet, r the angel of the Church ' 
whom Boston sends to San Francisco, — hence- 
forth r to our moist vows denied.' May the 
dwellers on the far Pacific shore know how to 
cherish the goodly gift which we of the Atlantic 
scarce know how to spare ! " * 

The "Unitarian-reception Breakfast," as it 
was called, was given at the Fifth-avenue Ho- 
tel, on Wednesday, the 11th of April. Among 
the three hundred at the tables were many 
Unitarian clergymen and prominent members 

* Letter, dated Boston, April 2, 1860. 



160 THOMAS STARE KIXG. 

of the Boston and New-York churches. The 
bouquet of choice flowers before the plate of 
each lady, and the music of the Dodworth 
Band, contributed to make the re-union tasteful 
and brilliant. William Cullen Bryant presided; 
and near him were seated Mr. King, and Drs. 
Bellows, Osgood, and Farley, with a brilliant 
array of Unitarian clergymen. Dr. Chapin 
was invited; but he replied, that an engage- 
ment out of the city compelled him to be absent 
from an occasion with which his heart so deeply 
sympathized, and expressed the hope that it 
would be one of true Christian utterance and 

The chairman of the Committee of Arrange- 
ments (A. C. Richards, Esq.) appropriately 
welcomed the company, and introduced the 
president, who stated the object of the festival 
in a brief but graceful strain of remark. It 
was to take leave of his eloquent friend, who 
was going to where the fields were white to the 
harvest, and who brought a pair of stout reap- 
er's arms with him. He hoped their brother 
and his family would have favoring gales to the 



A MONTE OF INTERVAL. 161 

Italy of our land beyond the mountains which 
were our Switzerland ; and he closed with this 
sentiment : " This social gathering of our laity 
and clergy, — pleasant in itself, and pleasant 
as a promise of frequent and genial and blessed 
fellowship in coming years for our churches." 
Rev. Dr. Osgood responded to this sentiment, 
and made the main speech of the festival. He 
was interesting and poetic. He gratefully and 
gracefully recognized the generosity of the laity 
in preparing a scene so charming, that, if Alad- 
din's lamp were a Christian device, it might 
well be believed it had been used to create it. 
" This plenty and hospitality," he said, w is 
worthy of our hospitable hosts. This hall is a 
fair symbol of our laity, in their whole treat- 
ment of their ministers. Here is bread enough 
and to spare ; and these substantial viands show 
fitly the honorable fact, that our people do not 
mean, either here or elsewhere, to keep their 
clergy in a famishing or half-famishing con- 
dition. These lovely flowers well typify the 
friendly and devout sentiment that cheers our 
churches with its fragrance ; and this sweet 
11 



162 THOMAS STABB KING. 

music is the voice of the higher harmony that 
is binding our people together, and asking to 
rebuke the harsh individualism, and celestialize 
church-life into the fellowship of the Spirit." 
The best of all, he said, were the substantial 
men and women who were here seen together. 
He dwelt on this feature, then on the j>oet who 
presided, and but briefly on the guest, who, he 
said, " has been nurtured by our best thought, 
and who has found his best teachers in TTalker ? s 
sententious wisdom and Dewey's devout elo- 
quence." He closed in the following terms : 
f 'I commend our guest to his new work, and 
offer, in your name, our God-speed to him and 
to his family. TTe doubt not that the Golden 
Gate, that opens to admit this voyager, will 
receive a better treasure than they give, — a 
treasure of spiritual wisdom, as well as beau- 
tiful taste and genial fellowship. Such mer- 
chandise is ' better than the merchandise of 
silver ; and the gain thereof, than fine gold.' 
I give this sentiment : Our principal guest, 
Thomas Starr King : God's blessing upon him, 
his familv, and lus voyage ! TTe £ive him the 



A MONTE OF INTERVAL. 163 

hand and the heart of our fellowship to bear 
with him to our brethren and our church in 
California." 

Mr. King, in reply,* spoke naturally of his 

* This speech was severely criticised by a portion of the 
Universalist press, and treated as though it were unworthy 
the character of Mr. King. Hence, though I do not aim to pre- 
sent his denominational or political life, yet deem it due to 
truth to copy here what report there is of this effort, with the 
remarks, 1. That on his returns from visits to New York, when 
he was teaching school, he was accustomed to express admira- 
tion of Dr. Dewey's discourses ; and, 2. He was sensitive as to 
the report of his speech, the imperfect character of which, in his 
private letters, he deeply regretted. 

"Mk President, Ladies, and Gentlemen, — One of the 
most distinguished essayists of New England once said, that, if 
any one could condense into a blow-pipe all the feelings which he 
felt in addressing a large company, it would melt a planet. I feel, 
that, could I condense but one-hundredth part of the feelings I 
now experience, it would melt my heart. I have often been 
termed a ' distinguished son of New England,' and have not always 
rectified the mistake ; for in New England it does not bestow any 
particular credit on a man to be called a New-Yorker. But now, 
when about to leave for California, I make full confession. I am 
a son of New York. I did not, however, remain here long 
enough to become deeply corrupted ; for I took my hegira, as I 
am informed (for I have no definite recollection of the fact), when 
five weeks old. But I was not only born in New York, but I 
may say that I had my second birth also here : for it was to this 
city I came, on visits to my friends, when a mere youth, and at 
the period when the heart is unusually open to religious impres- 
sions; and some of my earliest and deepest convictions of the 
truth of Christianity were gained at that time. 



164 THOMAS STAEB KING. 

connection with New York ; and what he said 
was in a strain of gratitude and of a generosity 
of acknowledgment that were characteristic of 
him. There is no stenographic report of this 

" I remember when I was quite a young man, twenty years 
ago, going in and hearing a sermon in the Church of the Messiah ; 
and no church in the world, not even St. Peter's, could make me 
believe that I was so much in the house of God, as when there 
listening to the beautiful sermon of Dr. Dewey, which, like dis- 
tant thunder on the horizon, convinced me that I heard the voice 
of God. It was said, that, if Jove should come on earth to speak 
to men, he would speak in Homer's Greek; and so it seemed, 
if the Infinite himself came to speak to the children of men, he 
would speak in some such tones as those of Dr. Dewey. I stand 
to-day to speak of him and of New York, and to show that the 
reverence which I then felt for him has been somewhat subdued 
since by experiencing his friendship in Boston. My friend of the 
Church of the Divine Unity would no doubt remember the first 
sermon I preached in his church. I believe it was a very rainy 
night, and there were but forty-five persons present. To-day I 
have two places to speak of, — one is Boston ; and the other the 
Golden Gate beyond the Switzerland of our country, as the Presi- 
dent so well expressed it. I will only say of Boston, that, next 
to New York and San Francisco, Boston is the best place to live 
in. If we read the early history of the Church in the Acts of the 
Apostles, we shall see that the great cities on the sea-shore were 
the vital points of diffusion. Not in inland Jesusalem, but in 
Antioch, in Corinth, in Rome, the great work was done. In the 
inland cities, St. Paul only remained weeks, while in seaports his 
stay was for years. There is a glory in being able to shape even 
a single heart according to the religion of Jesus Christ: what, 
then, must it be to have a whole State in which to make a noble 
type of Christianity ! I feel that I shall go to my new field weak 



A MONTH OF INTERVAL. 165 

extempore speech, and no sketch whatever of 
the closing portion of it. At the end of what 
account there is, it is related that he "pro- 
ceeded to argue eloquently in behalf of the 

enough; and, before the President's poetry could be fulfilled, I 
know that my arms will need some gymnastic training. I know 
that even Aladdin's lamp could not display the scene which 
would be enacted, as the words of God go afar into the field of a 
new and vast empire of freemen. I think I ought to have the 
privilege of taking out some of the sermons of my brethren to 
that distant post of labor. I feel that I should be commissioned 
to speak for New York there. I would wish some sermons from 
Dr. Osgood, Dr. Farley, Brother Frothingham, or Dr. Bellows, so 
that I might say to my new flock, ' These men are preaching to 
you.' I would also like to have some of Brother Longfellow's 
inspiration, and then I might succeed. As to my prospects in 
California, a vast field is before me. I trust that I may, beyond 
the land where — 

' Rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound 
Save its own dashings,' 

.preach the Christian Thanatopsis, 'Whereas in Adam all die, 
so in Christ shall all be made alive.' But in regard to the gen- 
eral cause, however highly we may think of the Unitarian doc- 
trine, and however superior we may feel our simple faith to be, 
we are to remember that the grandeur of the Christian religion is 
shown in its calling into existence so many great and diverse 
types of excellence. There are diversities of operation, but one 
spirit, — not Catholic alone, or Protestant alone : there were 
Luther and Calvin and Wesley and Channing. It was as in 
literature. Once it was sai'd there was no standard but the classic ; 
but what shall we make now of Dante and Shakspeare? So 
Greek art was once pronounced to be the only true art; but what 



166 THOMAS STABB KIXG. 

Liberal Christianity represented by the Unita- 
rian Church. After a beautiful tribute to Dr. 
Bellows, and others present, the reverend gen- 
tleman bade farewell to his friends, and con- 
cluded by offering this sentiment : ' The Liberal 
Christians of New York and its neighborhood, 
— may they support in the future, as now, the 
cause they advocate, and vindicate then claim 
to an honorable place in the Broad Church by 
the vigor of their faith and the riches of their 
Christian character !'" 

Dr. Bellows, in following Mr. King, began 
by saying, " The speech of our friend and guest 
has made me feel as if I were going to Cali- 
fornia too : and, indeed, I could almost be will- 
shall we make of the Gothic cathedral ? All the world cannot 
be made after one religious type. But let each be faithful to 
its own calling, and grow after its own kind. But there is one 
method of growth to Unitarianism. perhaps, that has not been 
thought of. An Irishman once called on me for pecuniary aid. 
I questioned him, and expressed surprise that he did not go for 
assistance to his priest. The Irishman said he was not a Catholic, 
but was born a Presbyterian, and his wile was an Episcopalian; 
but, when they came to this country, they compromised their dif- 
ferences of creed, and became Unitarians. I think, that, if this 
would always be the result, I could truly pray that all Presby- 
terians and Episcopalians might be brought to live together in 
uuity!" 



A MONTH OF INTERVAL. 167 

ing to go in his company ; for great as his loss 
may be to us here at the East in a denomina- 
tional way, and as a brilliant and popular expo- 
nent of our Liberal Christianity, it seems just 
now to be still greater in a private way and as 
a personal friend. His genial and affectionate 
nature has made him so necessary to us, that 
we know not how to part with him. But per- 
haps all the more for this reason is he better 
fitted to go. His attaching private qualities 
will double his public usefulness. If we could 
readily spare him, he would not be so eagerly 
coveted ; and, if he had not made it a great 
sacrifice for us to give him up, he would not be 
so precious where he is going. But really he 
is only following up his legitimate business in 
going to California. A circulating medium, 
widely diffused and everywhere current, ring- 
ing always true, known for genuine at every 
counter, and honored, no doubt, by every one 
of these bankers and brokers and presidents 
and directors I see about me, he has done as 
much as any one of our brethren to bring the 
widely scattered states, cities, villages, and ham- 



168 THOMAS STARR KING. 

lets of our Atlantic world into relations of intel- 
lectual and moral commerce with each other ; 
and now he simply goes to extend these rela- 
tions between the Atlantic and Pacific commu- 
nities. "What has he been about, these ten 
years past, but knitting together, with his 
genial and subtile powers, the intellectual and 
moral heart-strings of, may I not say, millions 
of hearers, to whom he has either preached 
Liberal Christianity, or lectured it without the 
name, or even the intent? For with those to 
whom religion is the name for the highest view 
of life, considered in its totality, there can be 
no distinction between lecturing and preaching. 
If the people do not object to the medicine, but 
only to the label, it is a great satisfaction that 
its efficacy does not depend upon its name. 
And now our brother is going, drawing after 
him all these tender affections, all this sympa- 
thetic body of f countrymen, friends, and lov- 
ers,' — going a representative of the liberal 
thought and enlarged moral and religious senti- 
ment of the great public whose ear and con- 
fidence he has so richly enjoyed and deserved, 



A MONTE OF INTERVAL. 169 

— to the remotest part of our country, — the 
opposite side of our land, — to fasten the cord 
he has woven to the hearts of California broth- 
ers, and presently to establish a mighty and 
cordial bond between the liberal thinkers of 
the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts. It is a 
proper, a legitimate business for him. He is 
made for it ; and the work is both worthy, and 
likely to be glorious." 

An interesting letter was read from Rev. R. 
P. Cutler, who for five years preached to the 
Unitarian Society of San Francisco. "I will 
predict for Mr. King," he wrote, " a large mea- 
sure of success in his ministry there, an extended 
popularity, wider means of Christian usefulness, 
and a grander harvest from his lone and faithful 
toil, than he has ever yet enjoyed. He goes to 
a new seat of empire, — to the spot where that 
star which has so long wandered westward 
stands fixed and radiant in the heavens. He 
goes to a State which has inexhaustible resources 
in her soil, and a great future of both power and 
fame. He goes to a city of a marvellously 
rapid growth, and whose inhabitants are match- 



170 THOMAS STARR KIXG. 

t 

less in energy and enterprise. He goes to a 
climate winch is full of all health, inspiration, 
and vitality. He goes to a community remark- 
ably receptive of liberal ideas in religion ; and 
he goes to a people and a society whose arms, 
whose hearts and homes, are generously open 
to receive him." 

The report of this festival occupies fourteen 
columns of the r ' New-York Christian Inquirer," 
which, besides the speeches and letters already 
named, contains sketches of the remarks made 
by Rev. Dr. Farley, Rev. Samuel Longfellow, 
and Rev. O. B. Frothingham. The "Inquirer " 
says it was truly a tasteful and splendid re- 
union, which seemed to give entire satisfaction 
to the company. 

Abstracts of speeches are hardly objects of 
legitimate criticism, as opinions expressed in 
them may be essentially modified by words left 
out; and criticism on Mr. King's speech on 
this occasion would seem to be precluded, from 
the circumstance that he pronounced the report 
of it contained in the " Inquirer " to be inaccu- 
rate. He did not, however, make one of his 



A MONTH OF INTERVAL. 171 

happiest efforts. His reference to Dr. Dewey 
was more complimentary than it was just to 
himself. The sentiment which he offered, em- 
bodying the main thought of his speech, is in 
harmony with the whole course of his life. 

Cheered by substantial tokens of affection, 
he, with his family, embarked in the " Northern 
Light " for San Francisco. He had a pleasant 
voyage. " The last two days of the passage," 
he writes, " were rough ; but I was not sick a 
minute. I wrote a sermon during the roughest 
swell, sitting in my state-room. I commenced 
at eleven in the morning, and finished at nine at 
night." He also kept a journal and wrote let- 
ters during the passage. He arrived at three 
o'clock on Saturday afternoon, April 28, at 
San Francisco. "The parish committee," he 
says, "were in waiting, and told me that they 
had given notice that there would be no service 
on Sunday, supposing I would be exhausted. 
But I told them I was ready ; and they gave a 
new notice in one Sunday-morning paper." 

As Mr. King was on his way to California, 
the beautiful article on "The White Hills," in 



172 THOMAS STARR KING. 

the "Christian Examiner," written by his friend 
Kev. T. B. Fox, was passing through the press. 
"When," is its closing paragraph, "this com- 
mendation of c The White Hills ' reaches our 
readers, its author may be entering through the 
Golden Gate, — the harbor of San Francisco. 
Many of those readers who r have him in their 
hearts ' for his fervid and logical discourses on 
the highest themes, or for the joyous wit and 
wisdom of his spontaneous talk, will join in the 
hope we cannot forbear expressing here, that 
the new scene of his labors may bid him wel- 
come, enrobed in the richest and softest hues 
of a Pacific sunset ; an omen to his native and 
educated instinct for beauty of a twice-blessed 
Christian ministry, — none the less Christian 
because there will mingle with its speech and 
work the influence of an enthusiastic passion 
for the natural world, as full of manifestations 
of the law, the wisdom, and the love of its 
Creator." 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 




HOMAS STARR KING entered upon 
his labors in California in an unpre- 
tending way. "I shall go to you," 
he wrote to the Unitarian Parish of San Fran- 
cisco, "in the hope of using all the powers that 
may be continued to me for your permanent 
strength as a Liberal-Christian parish. My 
great ambition in life is to serve the cause of 
Christianity as represented by the noblest souls 
of all the Liberal-Christian parties. I am not 
conscious of any gifts, either of thought or 
speech, that can make my presence with you so 
desirable as you seem to think ; but if I can be 
of service by co-operating with you in laying 
deeper the foundations and lifting higher the 

[173] 



174 THOMAS STAMR KING. 

walls of our faith in your city, whose civiliza- 
tion is weaving out of the most various and in 
many respects the best threads of the American 
character, I shall have reason always to bless 
Providence for a rich privilege."* When he 
thus defined the ruling passion of his life, he 
indulged the hope that "he might be relieved 
from the detestable vagrancy imposed by his 
present necessity of lecturing."! I see no 
reason to doubt the sincerity of these words 
because Mr. King continued to lecture, any 
more than there is to doubt the sincerity of 
statesmen, who in their letters sigh for the 
repose of private life, and yet continue to fill 
post after post of honor. With this ambition 
and hope, he contemplated what proved to be 
his crowning service, and for which his life had 
been a preparation. It would require a volume 
to do justice to the work by which he became 
identified with the social, political, and theologi- 



* Letter to Chairman of Trustees, Boston, Jan. 3, 1S60, in 
the valuable address of Robert B. Swain, delivered March 15, 
1864. 

t Letter to Dr. Bellows, Dec 2, 1859. 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 175 

cal life of California. I propose only to glance 
at his fields of labor, and pass to the closing 
scene. 

Mr. King delivered his first discourse in 
San Francisco on the 29th of April, 1860. His 
countenance had an expression of surprise as he 
edged his way towards the pulpit along the 
aisle packed with the earnest, hardy, stalwart 
people who completely filled the church ; and 
doubtless, as the audience saw his slender frame 
and youthful appearance, the feeling was recip- 
rocated, and hundreds involuntarily exclaimed, 
" Is this Starr King ? " He preached from the 
text, "And they shall come from the east and 
the west, and from the north and from the 
south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of 
God." His sermon more than met the ex- 
pectations of the parish, and, by the warm 
eulogies of the secular press, created a sensa- 
tion through the city. From Sunday to Sun- 
day, from month to month, the interest which 
he excited continued. His subsequent dis- 
courses rather added to than took from this 
first impression. His feelings had been power- 



176 THOMAS STABR KING. 

fully stirred by the generous proofs of affection 
for him in the East, which, so far from nursing 
conceit, stimulated him to effort : the surpass- 
ing natural beauty and wonders of this region, 
as he coursed the Pacific Sea or surveyed the 
grand mountain-land, ministered to his religious 
genius ; and, as he trod this cosmopolitan field 
in the free play of his nature, qualities came 
out which were unknown to his old friends, and 
perhaps were unknown to himself. He wove 
into his pulpit efforts the new impressions born 
of the fresh experience of the common life about 
him ; and it is fair to presume that his utter- 
ances now attained their greatest excellence, or 
at least their most effective spiritual power. 
The noble centralisms of his theology — the 
paternity of God and the brotherhood of man* 

* Peter Cooper, Esq., who was prominent in the Unitarian 
Festival, says in a letter to Dr. Bellows, printed in the " New- 
York Christian Inquirer," and dated April 2, 1864, " It was a 
firm and an all-inspiring faith in the fatherhood of God and in the 
brotherhood of man that made Starr King willing to labor and 
suffer reproach : because he believed that God will have all men 
to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth ; feeling 
assured that none can resist the good pleasure of an Almighty 
Will." 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. Ill 

— were well adapted to this field. A portion 
of his parish, some of whom had sat under 
his preaching at Charlestown, were in full 
sympathy with these views. His labors were 
rewarded with great success. So his profes- 
sional life continued to the end. 

Circumstances dissipated whatever hopes he 
might have indulged of being free from the lec- 
ture-room : and indeed he had accepted, before 
leaving Boston, a flattering invitation to deliver, 
before the Mercantile-Library Association, a 
course of four lectures, consisting of those he 
had delivered at the East. He thus refers in a 
letter to the first one : " I have written a first- 
rate new lecture for the opening. Subject, 
1 Substance and Show.' It closes with a mag- 
nificent picture of San Francisco, reclining in a 
sand-hill, and washing its feet of dust and fleas 
in the great basin which empties into the Pacific. 
A most eloquent passage." The others were 
equally original. They were delivered in the 
First Congregational Church, which was crowd- 
ed to its utmost capacity with people to hear 
them. Each one was pronounced a gem in its 
12 



178 THOMAS STARR KING. 

way. The receipts were unprecedented ; and, 
though the lecturer was liberally compensated, a 
handsome sum was added to the treasury of the 
institution. He was urged to deliver a second 
course ; but duty to his society compelled him 
to decline. He lectured, however, in many 
places in the State and in Oregon. He wrote 
new lectures. One of them, on "Books and 
Reading, " on its first delivery, struck great 
audiences like a series of electric shocks, and 
took the best of any. He thus relates per- 
sonal incidents connected with the delivery of 
this lecture : " In my lecture on f Books and 
Reading,' I made the Germans mad by alluding 
to a German student as a man l whose blood 
was a decoction of tobacco-smoke and beer.' 
They pitched into me right and left. So I put 
a salve on their wounded feelings, in my lecture, 
in the Methodist Chapel, upon the fresh and 
refreshing topic of ? Substance and Show.' I 
told them that the last thing in my thought 
was to insult Germans as a class. Not only 
were German students great blessings to Cali- 
fornia, but I was a German myself! My 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 179 

grandfather came straight from Saxony, full of 
tobacco-smoke and beer, and brought my name 
with him, — Thomas Starr. And then I told 
them that 'Starr,' in my native tongue, means 
' stiff, stubborn, obstinate, and wrong-headed ; ' 
'and,' I continued, f so long as I bear the name, 
I mean to be true to it, and remain " stiff and 
obstinate" in my gratitude and reverence for 
the scholars and the service of my fatherland. 
And now,' said I, /if there are any fellow-Ger- 
mans here, let us mutually and cordially shake 
hands.' I am all right now with the Saxon 
brethren, and they feel very happy." 

The lectures Mr. King wrote in California 
were pronounced to be altogether of a different 
order from the series that had been delivered in 
the East. " He availed himself of that injunc- 
tion of rhetoricians, not to be too evenly excel- 
lent in your style. He polished his sentences 
less ; he waited no longer on fine fancies ; he 
argued more ; he dropped down to good plain 
talk for minutes together in his addresses ; 
and then, when his hearers were rested, he 
blazed out with passages that swept away all 



180 THOMAS STARR KING. 

thoughts but of the one topic that possessed 
him."* 

The calls on him for lectures were incessant. 
The pioneers recognized, in this brilliant intel- 
lect, a mine, the products of which had a glitter 
above their fields of gold ; and they were crazy 
to work it. Now and then, a flood would de- 
prive them of the pleasure ; but scarcely any 
thing else. " I am hard at work, as usual," he 
wrote, " but not in lecturing. There is a great 
flood in the interior. California is a lake. 
Rats, squirrels, locusts, lecturers, and other 
pests, are drowned out. I am a home-bird, 
and enjoy it hugely." And he labored in this 
field to the close of his life. 

He was invited to labor in the wider field 
of the social, literary, and philanthropic organi- 
zations, which, irrespective of party or sect or 
position, bring the leading spirits of communi- 
ties together on the plane of a common human- 
ity. It speaks volumes for that new-formed 
community, that these associations were in full 
play in it. Mr. King complied with requests to 

* "San Francisco Dailv Bulletin." 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 181 

speak in behalf of the Seamen's-friend Society, 
the Episcopal Mission Sunday School, the Dash- 
away Temperance Association, the Protestant 
Orphan Asylum, the Ladies' Protection and 
Eelief Society, the Boys' Reform School, the 
Agricultural Society, the Masonic Relief Fund, 
the Ancient Order of Masons, and at a High- 
school Dedication. It is amusing to read his 
references to these occasions. Whenever there 
was a contribution, he thought more of the sum 
he got than of the word he uttered. "I am 
wanted," he writes in June, 1860, "for several 
societies in San Francisco. In fact, I am quite 
in demand, and am very near being f somebody' 
out here. The church is still very full. Last 
evening I preached in behalf of the Seamen's- 
friend Society, and asked for a collection in aid 
of its treasury. We took four hundred dollars. 
Wasn't that good?" His utterances. were ever 
acceptable. He had the faculty of entering with 
heart and discretion into a good cause. He 
carried his geniality of manner in private life 
into the forum. "There was argument in his 
very voice. It thrilled and throbbed through an 



182 THOMAS STARR KING. 

audience like an organ, carrying conviction 
captive before its wonderful melody. . . . The 
audience felt that he was one of them : his eye 
spoke eloquently of sympathy with them, and 
his tongue confirmed it. Even though you sat 
in a far corner of the room, you felt at once 
that he was your friend. The geniality of 
manner that characterized him in private life he 
carried upon the platform and into the pulpit." * 
His broad, Christian eclecticism, his unaffected 
catholicity, adapted him in a peculiar manner 
for such labors. His love was the one touch 
of nature that made the whole world akin. 
Thus, by the simple wand of unselfish service, 
he became a man of the people, — a king ruling 
over their hearts ; and, to the close of his 
career, he remained a general favorite. 

Much account is made in the San Francisco 
journals of the social influence Mr. King ex- 
erted. His new home was a house delight- 
fully situated. " We are comfortably settled," 
he writes June 29, 1860, "in our little house; 
which is a gem in its way, with a superb land- 

* "The Golden Era." 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 183 

scape from the windows. I should be happy 
if we could have a call, now and then, from 
some of the dear friends." To another he 
writes, " A gem of a house, at the low rate of 
seventy-five dollars a — quarter? No, you fool ! 
a month ! But there's a grand mountain land- 
scape from the parlor windows. That makes 
the rent cheap." One of the journals remarks, 
" His Friday-evening receptions will long be re- 
membered by all who ever had the privilege of 
attending one. Hospitality was his delight : its 
exercise rendered him supremely happy. On 
these occasions he was radiant." The mirthful 
vein, in early life full and rich, kept on in an 
abundant flow ; and, at times, he was as boyish 
when he was "the natural bishop of California," 
as when he was chief clerk of the Navy Yard. 
One of the tributes reads, "He was generous 
to a fault ; giving more in private charities in 
one month than many men who are called lib- 
eral, who have twice his means, give in a year." 
In this way his social life went on to the last. 

There was yet another labor which he de- 
lighted in, — that of keeping up correspondence 



184 THOMAS STAER KING. 

with his friends. His letters are voluminous ; 
and a series, on the wonderful scenery of the 
Pacific, was printed in the f ' Boston Tran- 
script." He had a real character ; and hence 
life's changes and conventionalities altered noth- 
ing in him that was essential. The incense that 
triumphs bring did not weaken old attachments. 
His heart was untravelled. Its fibres stretched 
away to the East, and clung lovingly to early 
fastenings ; and his letters abound in evidences 
of his love for friends he left behind. Those 
addressed to Dr. Ballou strikingly show traits 
of character. This benignant spirit seemed to 
be ever near him, fr full-charactered with lasting 
memory." The earliest letter which I have 
from California is the following one from the 
Yo-Semite region : — 

YoSemite Falls a:nt> Xotch, July 17, 1S60. 
My dear Doctor, — This is Tuesday evening; 
and I am writing to you by camp-fire light in the great 
Yo-Semite ZSotch, where the grandeur of the Sierras 
seems to concentrate and knot itself, as it were. We 
arrived here on Sunday afternoon ; and ever since 
I have been "on the go" among the marvels and 
splendors of the wondrou3 pass. And all the time 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 185 

I have been thinking of you, — of how greatly you 
would enjoy the scenery, and of the immensely 
greater pleasure it would give me to travel with you 
on foot and by horse. Perhaps, however, if you 
were here, we should bet ; and then, as you are so 
much more accomplished in faro and thimble-rigging 
and cribbage, and such clerical graces, no doubt 
another little paper would have to be printed, very 
costly to me, running, " Die, quo pignore certes ? " 
or something like that. 

Ah, doctor ! what is there not to see in this val- 
ley, in the line of majestic rock and cataract wild- 
ness ? I have seen the genius loci to-day, sitting on 
an obelisk of granite (springing clean a thousand 
feet above the snow-line, so smooth that snow could 
not cling to his ashy-colored poll), and, with his fin- 
ger on his nose, looking this query at me : " Ah, my 
slim chap ! so you've thought the White Mountains 
were some, have you ? Where's your Notch now ? 
Can you call to mind those warts on Coos County, 
Jefferson, and Adams, that you have written so much 
nonsense about ? Don't you wish you could make a 
bonfire of those handsome-typed books, in which you 
have cracked up baby-mountains as though they are 
full grown ? " How cute and funny he looked ! and 
how cheap I felt ! But, then, there isn't room in 
Coos County for the Sierras ; and the White Moun- 
tains are as big a dose of sublimity as the district can 



186 THOMAS STARR KING. 

stand. Alas ! I didn't think of this answer till the 
spirit had melted off from his seat on the south 
dome of the valley here, — a rock 4,967 feet sheer 
over the plain. No ; I forget : it was on the obelisk, 
fifteen hundred feet higher than this, that he so im- 
pudently leered at New Hampshire and its mountain- 
annalist. 

You can have no conception of the variety and 
majesty of the rock-walls, cones, turrets, and domes 
of this valley. I supposed that grotesqueness would 
be the prominent characteristic of the cliffs and pil- 
lars. But the forms are very noble. Grotesqueness, 
or mere Egyptian mass and heaviness, is the excep- 
tion, not the rule. We have persons in our party 
who have scoured Switzerland, and travelled exten- 
sively among the Peruvian Andes ; and they say that 
no such rock-scenery is offered by Alps or Cordil- 
leras. 

And the waterfalls ! — I have been surfeited with 
the beauty and wildness of them. It has been an 
unusually wet spring, and the falls are all in full 
health and glee. While I write by this camp-fire, 
the roar is filling my ears of the Yo-Semite Fall, — a 
mile distant, lovely as the comet of 1858, which it re- 
sembles in shape, — that leaps 1,497 feet in one pitch, 
and then instantly takes another of 462, and then a 
third of 518. They are all visible in one view ; and 
a more entrancing picture it is impossible to con- 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 187 

ceive. This is the fall, I believe, that called a 

tape-line, when he saw it last September. I am 
sorry that he could not have seen it as I have enjoyed 
it the last two days. 

Last evening, before sunset, I visited the Bridal- 
veil Falls, which leap 809 feet, without a break, over 
a perpendicular granite wall. You see the curve 
aloft, as the tide pours off, at least twenty feet from 
the cliff; and the rainbows at he bottom would set 
up all France in ribbons the next year. 

To-day I have explored one of the upper ravines 
of the valley, and have climbed above the Vernal 
Fall, where the Merced River, as large as the Andros- 
coggin at Berlin, pours from a perpendicular granite 
rampart, 500 feet ; and back of this, half a mile dis- 
tant, just under an obelisk 2,000 feet sheer, the river 
plunges 900 feet, which is called the Nevada Fall. 
And the walls that enclose this water-magnificence 
are more grand than the White-mountain Notch. 

Above the Nevada Fall I climbed 1,500 feet again, 
to see the snow-streaked turrets of the great Sierras. 
Two of the peaks visible there, and quite near, are 
13,600 feet. On that path, Alpheus Bull, who is 
with me, killed a rattlesnake ; and on that path, 
when we saw the gray old monarchs holding up the 
frost wherever it could loosen, I thought of our visit 
to Mount Hayes. 

But the camp-fire burns low. Don't read this 



188 THOMAS STARE KIXG. 

scrawl for any definite information, but only as a con- 
fession of friendship, and of sorrow, that, eyen among 
such material grandeurs, I am so far from one I 
respect and love so deeply. Give cordial regards to 
all your family. Add an especially warm greeting 
to Mr. Tweed. TVe are to start in the morning for 
San Francisco, where I have had great and unde- 
served success. Yet my heart is in Xew England. 
Do write again to your constant friend, 

T. S. King. 

July 19. 
P. S. — TTe have left the To-Semite ; and, after 
two days' ride on horseback, are at Coulterville, 
where I am to mail the letter. I forgot to say that 
I visited the mammoth trees of Mariposas the day 
before we reached Yo-Semite, and enjoyed a glorious 
afternoon-hour with the stately old conservatives. I 
measured one that was ninety feet in girth at the 
ground, and saw more than two hundred that ranged 
from forty to seventy-five feet in circumference. 
They have a tawny bark, entirely different in color 
from any other trees of the California forests, and 
look leonine in hue as well as mass. Yet how our 
senses fool us ! I was immensely disappointed in 
the first view of the ninety-feet Methuselah in the 
Mariposas Grove, seen among such a crowd of ma- 
jestic forest-senators. But yesterday I saw one 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 189 

standing alone in a grove near Crane's Flat ; and I 
said, " Here is a chap that comes up to the mark." 
How imposing in bulk and height he was, with his 
branches upstretched like a harp ! I was truly over- 
awed. Out came the tape-line. Surely he is over 
ninety feet ! I put it around him. The fatal string 
showed only fifty-six. — At home, among you big fel- 
lows, / wasn't much: here, they seem to think I 
am somebody. Nothing like the right setting! 

Again yours, t. s. k. 

The following letters, containing the tender- 
est expressions of love and reverence, speak for 
themselves : — 

•San Francisco, Jan. 1, 1861. 

My dear Doctor, — I wish you a happy New 
Year ! " It is too late," do you say ? Why, then, 
do you live so far from decent climates and respecta- 
ble people ? Surely you wouldn't have us begin our 
year four weeks in advance, for the sake of suiting 
your calendar on the frosty edge of notional and 
sectional Massachusetts ! 

With this note I send a draft, which, with your 
name on the back, will persuade a hundred dollars 
out of the gripe of the dragon that guards the vault 
of the Bank of Commerce in Boston. What do you 
suppose the draft is for? Perhaps to be used by 
you in buying something for me on commission. No. 



190 THOMAS STARR KING. 

Perhaps as a donation to Tufts College. No. Pos- 
siblv to pay you for your two letters to me several 
weeks since. They were worth more than this draft ; 
but, still So. I am your debtor for them, and must 
remain so some time longer. 

This draft is an offering from two or three of your 
friends here in my parish, to assure you of respect 
and sympathy, and to make you believe that they 
really do wish you a happy New Tear, though it is 
rather a doUar-ous way of showing it. They abso- 
lutely forbid you to use the money in any other way 
than for your private benefit, and make that the con- 
dition of its acceptance. 

You know that wise men from the East once 
travelled westward, to make an offering of gold as 
an expression of homage. The compliment has not 
been returned sufficiently from the West to the East. 
Two or three brethren here — shall I say, following 
the leading of a very small Starr? — have determined, 
on this opening of the year, to lay a slight tribute 
at the feet of Eastern wisdom and excellence, in the 
hope that it may be accepted as a feeble sign of their 
internal and frcmi incense of respect and admiration. 
Would that it might give you as much pleasure to 
receive it as it does us to send it ! 

Qui excellent friend Alpheus Bull — a large flake 
of the true salt of the earth — it one of the number. 
And let me say that he boics to foreordi 'nation, with 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 191 

the utmost freedom of will, in the matter of " Hunt's 
Merchants' Magazine." He did not believe that the 
affair was predestined till I read to him a chapter 
from the prophet Hosea, and emphasized a passage 
which took the Bull by the horns. This opened his 
eyes. He saw the divine decree, and the stubborn- 
ness of his will was instantly melted ; and I have 
noticed a solemn joy in him since, which attends 
those who are in harmony with the great currents 
of Providence, and who find liberty in obedience. 

(Don't let get hold of this fact : if he does, we 

shall have fifty mortal columns on the simplicity and 
wisdom of fatalism, — the very bull-beef of meta- 
physics.) 

I have been poorly during the autumn ; but am 
better now, though not so strong as I used to be. At 
present, I am delivering doctrinal lectures on Sun- 
day evenings to overflowing houses. We have here 
the tightest type of Orthodoxy, in connection with a 
noble large-heartedness among the people. There 
ought to be a strong Universalist church here ; and 
will be, I hope, before a great while. 

The State is worth fifty per cent more since the 
late election, and the triumph of the Lincoln ticket 
here. If we do not pay too large a price to keep 
the Cotton States in, we have a good" vista now. 
But I fear the flimsy compromise spirit in Congress. 

It is late, or rather early ; and I must stop. Soon 



192 THOMAS STARR KING. 

I shall send you a duplicate bill, to be used if this 
fails to reach you ; and then I shall enclose a note 
direct to our dear friend Tweed, to whom I now send 
cordial sympathy. And to you, my noble friend, and 
all yours, a prosperous and happy year ! 

Always yours, T. S. King. 

Rev. H. Ballou, 2d, D.D. 

San Francisco, Jan. 19, 1861. 

My dear Doctor, — I promised to write you 
again by the next steamer. Well, the boat of Mon- 
day is " the next " surely. Perhaps you expected a 
word by the steamer of the 1 1th ; but that was the 
last steamer. Having thus logically satisfied my 
conscience, I proceed. 

The second draft goes with this note. Oh that it 
was a draft for a second hundred ! But it isn't. It 
is the Siamese-twin of Draft No. 1, and will not be 
worth a copper sixpence if Chang has been honored : 
two bodies, but only one soul. (By the way, I 
wonder if Chang and Eng have two souls ; and if 
they are stitched inseparably, like their bodies. If 
so, what if one should experience religion when dying, 
and the other not? Propose the di-lemma to Dr. 
Nehemiah. Tell him that I can't become Orthodox 
till my mind is relieved. It is truly a critical junc- 
ture with me.) 

Doctor, it is the 19 th of January ; and such splen- 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 193 

did flashes of green, warm, vital, yellowish-green, 
as my eye catches on smooth mountain-sides, every 
time I lift my eye from this paper ! Warm, wet 
clouds are driving over the bay from the south ; and 
the sun, pouring through the rifts, kindles up the 
slopes in a way to make an emerald envious. With 
a dozen of you out here, I could make up my mind 
to live in this land, or on this queer edge of it, where 
there is no winter and no summer. Our climate is 
a Yankee September stereotyped. The range in the 
year in this city is just about the range of that month 
in Boston. 

I am lecturing a little. Last week I went to 
Marysville, and spoke two nights in an Old-school 
Presbyterian Church. The town is the noblest, in 
buildings, spirit, and surroundings, I have seen in the 
State. From the church-tower I saw the Sierra in 
saintly whiteness along a horizon-line of 200 miles, 
some of them 14,000 feet. They were 100 miles 
away, but seemed not over 30 ; and far on the 
north, 230 miles air-line, the pyramid of mighty 
Shasta, 1 6,000 feet, peeped over the dim plain, — a 
knob of steady flaming gold. Do come out here, 
and go with me to see it and Oregon. We'll go to 
the summit of Shasta, and laugh at Mont Blanc. I 
mean to. Love to everybody. Give the enclosed 
note to Tweed, and believe me 

Yours always, t. s. k. 

13 



194 THOMAS STABE KING. 

The hope that the climate might restore vital- 
ity to his system was the great, and perhaps 
the controlling, reason why Mr. King selected 
California as a temporary field of labor. In 
this he was disappointed. He writes to Mr. 
Ryer, July 30, 1860, "My health last week 
was wretched. I seemed to have some trouble 
in the brain. For three or four days, I could 
not write a word. Happily it is relieved now, 
and I feel quite strong in the upper story, but 
not so vigorous in body as I should like to. 
. . . On Saturday I wrote a sermon on the Yo- 
Semite, and its religious lessons, from the text 
in the sixty-first Psalm, f Lead me to the rock 
that is hisrher than I.' There was an immense 
congregation to hear it. Aisles were filled with 
seats, and extra settees were in all the vacant 
space around the pulpit." And he wrote to 
the same friend, Aug. 5, "It is four months to- 
day since we left the wharf in New York, and 
were borne away on the delectable 'Northern 
Light.' I cannot say whether it seems shorter 
or longer than that actual number of weeks. 
If I am to be absent two years, one-sixth of the 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 195 

time has passed. I can't say that I look for- 
ward with jubilance to a stay here five times 
as long in future as I have already been ; but I 
feel very sure that I shall not get away in less 
time than that. I want to see all the debt of 
the society paid, a new organ bought, a new 
church-front erected, a new parish started in 
another part of the city, and a good man in- 
vited and on hand to step into my foot-tracks." 
On the 16th of August, in a communication 
in writing to Mr. Swain, the chairman of the 
San Francisco Parish Committee, he says, "It 
is useless for me to shut my eyes to the fact, 
that I am not so well as I was when in Boston. 
I experience strange debility and singular pains 
and numbness in the brain. For writing pur- 
poses, I am nearly worthless ; and the symp- 
toms are the more serious from the fact that 
my father's constitution (which in most respects 
I seem to have inherited) snapped at about 
thirty- six. He was a very strong man till 
then ; but broke thus early, was good for noth- 
ing for three or four years, and died at forty- 
one." He adds, "If I shall not grow stronger 



196 THOMAS STARR KING. 

this fall and winter, I must return East next 
spring, to stop all ministerial work, — per- 
haps to cease all work on this planet." He 
says that he had no fear of death ; and, but 
for his anxiety for his family, he would be glad 
to enjoy the perpetual rest which could only be 
found beyond the grave. Mr. King had the 
presentiment, when he resided in Boston, that 
he should not live to see his fortieth birthday ; 
and this lingered in his mind. Soon after the 
date of this letter, he had another severe ill- 
ness. "I preached," he writes Sept. 20, "last 
Sunday, all day ; was taken ill on Monday, 
worse Tuesday, managed to speak at a high- 
school celebration yesterday, and to-day am 
down with chills and fevers." On the 17th of 
December, he wrote to Mr. Ryer, "Randolph, 
I have passed meridian. It is after twelve 
o'clock in the large day of my mortal life. I 
am no longer a young man. It is now after- 
noon with me ; and the shadows point back- 
ward towards the east, though not yet towards 
the Eastern States. I am thirty-six years old 
to-day ; and it is the twelfth anniversary of 






FOUR TEABS IN CALIFORNIA. 197 

our marriage. So I send you a salutation by 
overland mail." 

His labor in the line of his profession was 
more than successful, — it was triumphant. 
Statistics as to the number of pews purchased 
by individuals, the amount of debt paid off by 
his parish, and the continued interest in his 
preaching, gratifying as they are, give quite an 
inadequate idea of the influence he was exerting 
on the community. It was such, that, when 
the first year of his engagement expired, he 
could not regard his mission in California as 
fulfilled ; and he agreed to remain another year. 
He wrote to this effect to his Hollis-street 
Society. He said to a friend, that he had a 
desire " to preach the liberal gospel all over 
California and Oregon. . . . The field," he wrote 
March 20, 1861, "is great here, the work is 
hard, the attractions are another way; but 
Providence seems to keep the path open for one 
year more of labor on the edge of all things." 

The Providence of the civil war now offered 
another field of labor. Yery early he had sym- 
pathies and enthusiasms in the political line, 



198 THOMAS STARR KINO. 

but never entered the arena of party : lie con- 
tinued to have them during his ministry. Yet, 
whatever may have been his individual prefer- 
ences, he wrote, when the Presidential cam- 
paign of 1860 was pending, " I have not felt the 
first stir of an emotion in politics in this cam- 
paign : I shouldn't know there is a campaign," — 
so engrossed was he with the ambition of his 
life. This state of mind, however, changed 
into a feeling of the liveliest interest as it be- 
came too evident that things were changing 1 
from an ordinary question of party into a vital 
struggle for the national unity. In the awful 
face of the Eebellion, he read the look of a 
mighty historic hour. "What a year to live in ! " 
he writes ; " worth all other times ever known 
in our history or in any other." The thought 
was inspiration. As the theme of country took 
possession of him, he felt a new power. His 
doubts of a capacity for extempore speech went 
to the winds, and he rose to be a great orator, 
— just what his friends fifteen years before said 
he could be if he willed it. Like Cceur de 
Lion, he wielded a heavy mace, and hit hard ; 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 199 

and the ring of his strokes on the anvil of the 
public mind was clear and loud and telling. 
w Taking the Constitution and Washington for 
his text, he went forth appealing to the peo- 
ple."* As he spoke on "Webster and the 
Constitution," " Lexington and the new Strug- 
gle for Liberty," " Washington and the Union," 
— the titles of his political addresses, — his mag- 
netic eloquence swept every thing before it. 
He elaborated over this region the formula 
of freedom, which, fourteen years before, he 
analyzed with philosophical insight at the base 
of Bunker Hill.f He exposed the fatal heresy 
of Secession. He repelled the incipient sugges- 
tion of a Pacific Republic. He enforced the 
paramount duty of the hour to stand by the 
American Union ; for whatever of theory, of 
party, of personal ambition, or of prejudice, in 
this great hour, may have to pass away, it seems 
to be the will of the American people that the 
grand inheritance of the fathers of the Republic 
shall not pass away. He was now accepted as 
a representative man, — as an American patriot. 

* Mr. Swain*s Address. f See page 91. 



200 THOMAS STARR KIXG. 

His calls to speak were numerous, and his 
labor was immense. He found the Union 
sentiment strong evervwhere. It was strong in 
San Francisco. "It is lucky. " he writes. "I 
am sound on the Government question ; for, ten 
days ago, the people mobbed a suspicious, half 
Union, half Jeff. Davis, Southern minister, on 
Sunday, and warned him not to preach in San 
Francisco again." It was strong in the inte- 
rior. "To-night,"' he writes from Yreka, "I 
am to speak in a village with the sweet name 
of Deadwood, and to-morrow at the very im- 
portant and cultivated settlement of Kough and 
Beady. Scott's Bar wants me : Horsetown is 
after me ; Mugginsville bids high : Oro Fino 
applies with a long petition of names. Mad 
Mule has not yet sent in a request, nor Piety 
Hill, nor Modesty Gulch ; but doubtless they 
will be heard froin in due time. The Union 
sentiment is strong : but the Secessionists are 
watchful, and not in despair."'* It is not my 

* Mr. King writes as to California, Jan. 31. 1S61. u California 
is but slightly affected yet by the panic and the fright : we shall 
adhere to the Northern Confederacy." Oct. CI. 1S61, " The 
State is safe against Southern tampering.'' 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 201 

purpose to write a history of his political career. 
Suffice it to say that his labor was untiring. 
"I should be broken down," he writes in the 
midst of his engagements, "if I had time to 
think of how I feel ; but I don't.'"' And so this 
service for country continued to the end ! 

During this year, Mr. King lost his friend 
Dr. Ballou ;* and in transmitting, Dec. 2, 1861, 
a sum of money to his widow, he wrote, " This 
amount was contributed by a few friends of 
your noble departed husband in this city, as a 
very slight expression to you of our sympathy, 

* Hosea Ballou, 2d, was bom Oct. 18, 1796, in Guilford, Vt. 
His grandfather was a brother of Hosea Ballou. Dr. Ballou 
in early life laid the foundation of a profound scholarship in 
large classical attainments. About 1815, he was settled as pastor 
of the Universalist Church in Stafford, Ct. ; and, in 1821, in Rox- 
bury, Mass., where he resided seventeen years. He was an inti- 
mate friend of Thomas F. King, whose keen appreciation of the 
humorous elicited from Dr. Ballou letters and other things, full 
of wit and humor, which Mr. King was accustomed to read in 
private circles. Mr. Ballou, while living here, published " the 
Ancient History of Universalism ; " an admirable work, in the 
very spirit of a true history. He edited Sismondi's "History of 
the Crusades," and was the editor of the " Expositor and Uni- 
versalist Review." In 1838, he removed to Medford, Mass. ; and 
here he edited the " Universalist Quarterly," to which Mr. King 
became, from 1845, a voluminous contributor. Mr. Ballou, in 1845, 
received from Harvard College the degree of D.D. ; and, in 1853, 



202 THOMAS STARR KING. 

and a poor tribute from our respect and affec- 
tion for him. I wish to confess to you how 
deeply I feel his removal from us. He was 
very dear to me. From boyhood I have looked 
up to him with reverence, and in manhood I 
loved him as deeply as my father did. He was 
one of the world's true men. The inheritance 
of his memory is a rich benefaction to his 
family, and I rejoice that I can mourn with you 
as one who knew him. The prospect of meet- 
ing him again in Boston has been one of the 
joys which I have foretasted often ; but now it 
is one of the attractions of the world to come, 
that it holds a friend so precious and so true." 

Mr. King's pastorship was prosperous. w Our 
parish," he writes Nov. 2, 1861, "is strong 
and healthy. I am doing very little extra work 
the last few weeks. I am about commencing a 
series of lecture-sermons on the Book of Job." 

was appointed the President of Tufts College, which was now 
established, and in which he was Professor of History and Intel- 
lectual Philosophy. After a tour in Europe, he entered, in 1855, 
upon the discharge of his duties. It is but simple justice to say, 
that all connected with this infant institution had towards him 
feelings of love and veneration. He was " one of the world's 
true men." He died April 27, 1861. 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 203 

He now became convinced that it would be im- 
possible to leave San Francisco at the conclu- 
sion of his second year ; and, in a frank and 
grateful communication to the Hollis-street So- 
ciety, he resigned his position as its pastor.* 
As the new year came in, he was in fine spirits. 
"I never wrote so much," he says in January, 
1862, "in any former year as this last year, 
and yet am very strong. I grow old in looks, 
and am getting gray, but am feeling well." 
Some of his friends mentioned in the papers his 
name for senator ; and he wrote, "There is some 
talk of making me senator ; but I would swim 
to Australia before taking a political post." 
His letters dwell on the concerns of his parish ; 
and it rejoiced his heart to enumerate the active 
benevolence that graced its rare prosperity. 

The second anniversary of the commence- 
ment of his ministry in San Francisco came 

* I am indebted to Warren Sawyer, Esq., long a confidential 
friend of Mr. King, the Chairman of the Hollis-street Society, 
and named by Mr. King as one of his executors, for the free use 
of the letters which were addressed to him from California, cov- 
ering the whole period of Mr. King's labors in that State; al^o 
for copies of Mr. King's communications to the Hollis-street 
Society. The one alluded to in the text is in the Appendix. 



204 THOMAS STARR KING. 

round four weeks after the birth to him of a 
son. The spring was backward ; but loving 
hands literally robed the church, on this Sun- 
day, with flowers. Roses draped the pulpit, 
huno- in festoons and wreaths on the chande- 
liers, and were arranged in a mound on the 
communion-table ; wreaths hung between the 
windows ; on the gallery, in large letters of 
roses and green, were the words " April Twenty- 
Ninth, I860;" over him, on the wall, was a 
cross of lilies ; and the arch under which he 
stood, of twelve feet span, was covered with 
calla lilies and green. He delivered an ap- 
propriate anniversary-discourse. There was a 
Sunday-school festival in the evening. He 
arranged a service, to which the children, who 
occupied the wing-pews, beautifully responded. 
A hundred of them, of eight years old and 
under, went to the pulpit, and received from 
the pastor an exquisite bouquet ; when he read 
and handed to each a scriptural motto, written 
by him, with his autograph, on a small note- 
sheet. Though the church was crowded, — 
hundreds being unable to get in, — there was 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 205 

almost breathless silence, except when the pas- 
tor said something pleasant to a child, which 
caused a smile and a rustle. Mr. King writes, 
" The closing singing of f Hail, Columbia !' was 
tremendous." 

The letter which contains this remark has the 
following: "We are talking of a new church, 
larger and nearer to the centre of the city. Next 
week will decide, I think, whether or not the 
movement will be made. I dread the work 
and the new fetters to this longitude ; and yet 
I should like to plan and paint one church, and 
wafer my name to it. Leisure* and rest, I fear, 
will not come to me this side of the grave." 
This was his project. He set his heart upon 
the enterprise; and, before it was undertaken, 
he pledged his energies to aid it, and headed 
the subscription-list for it. He writes, "My 
own thousand I have pledged ; but that will be 
the smallest portion of my work. I mean to 
raise an organ besides by lecturing, and super- 
intend plans and work, and keep up the zeal to 
the paying point, if the work is undertaken." 
At length, the parish, which two years before 



206 THOMAS STAER KING. 

had been considered to be tottering, concluded 
to build a costly church. 

Months elapsed before this enterprise was 
matured. In the interval, Mr. King, with char- 
acteristic zeal, labored for the sick and wounded 
soldier by promoting subscriptions to the Sani- 
tary Commission. The cheerfulness with which 
the people everywhere pour forth money out of 
the impulse of grateful hearts, in all the States, 
for this noble object, is a proud record for 
American humanity. It was thus in California. 
Starr King was now a power in the State : eyes 
naturally turned to him as an exponent of such 
a cause ; and he never grew weary in speaking 
in its behalf. The coincidences in this life are 
remarkable ; and it happened that one of the 
earliest clerical brethren in New York to take 
him kindly by the hand, Dr. Henry "W. Bel- 
lows, was the official channel through which 
the magnificent contributions, made by Cali- 
fornia to the Sanitary Commission, reached 
their object. " Very busy," he writes Oct. 10, 
1862, "I am at work, and speaking for the 
fund for wounded soldiers much of my time. 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 207 

We have already sent two hundred thousand 
from our city to Bellows, and many thou- 
sand from the State." And he writes glow- 
ingly of the prospects of future contributions. 
He was engaged in this magnificent labor when 
he died. 

His private letters show how, in the midst 
of such labor, he watched the progress of the 
new church. At length, on the 3d of Decem- 
ber, 1862, the corner-stone of the splendid 
edifice in Geary Street was laid. The day was 
perfect. A great gathering of friends stood 
an hour, during the ceremonies, "with uncovered 
heads, in the open air, needing neither overcoat 
nor shawl, as they hung on the eloquent words 
of their pastor, whose utterance was full of joy 
and of faith. The occasion passed off hap- 
pily. His letters, as he watched narrowly, 
and at times impatiently, the progress of the 
work, chronicle its vexations as well as its 
triumphs. 

A year was to elapse between the laying of 
the corner-stone and the dedication ; and, dur- 
ing the interval, Mr. King met cheerfully the 



208 THOMAS STARR KING. 

calls that were made upon him. He spoke 
eulogies on the gallant dead whose life went 
out for their country. He gave the God-speed to 
the soldier, as his face was turned to the battle- 
field. " We send on by this steamer," he writes 
to his sister Angela, Dec. 9, 1862, "our cav- 
alry corps of one hundred picked and splendid 
men for the Boston quota. They attended our 
church last Sunday, and I gave them a charge. 
Last night I spoke to them in their drill-room. 
To-night the citizens give them a promenade 
concert in our largest hall, and I have written a 
letter to be read. To-morrow night they have 
a theatre-benefit. If you can see them in Bos- 
ton, don't fail. I lectured once here also for 
their benefit, and obtained five hundred dollars. 
They are noble fellows. So is Master Fred- 
erick, who is a good cavalry soldier in his father's 
fort. He is supremely happy when he rides in 
that way a-straddle. Joy runs out of his eyes." 
He did this year a herculean work for the Sani- 
tary Commission. He writes, November, 1863, 
" I have been very busy organizing a new sub- 
scription to the Sanitary Fund." To promote 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 209 

the objects of that commission, he spoke in the 
principal places in California, visited Oregon, 
traversed the Nevada and Washington Ter- 
ritories, and went even to Vancouver ; and, 
wherever he spoke, the people, in response 
to his appeals, generously poured forth their 
money. 

He seemed to be conscious that he was mak- 
ing a heavy trial of his frail frame. "The 
next four months," he wrote June 25, 1863, 
" will try my constitution more than any similar 
period of my life." He was faithful to the 
work of his parish, and untiringin his labor for 
the church. His ideal was a structure which 
should be an ornament to the city, an honor to 
his society, and a type of the cause of Liberal 
Christianity in this region ; and, as he saw his 
ideal becoming an embodiment, he could hardly 
have written more lovingly had he been con- 
scious that he was beholding what was to be a 
stately mausoleum over his dust. He called the 
church his monument ! He looked forward to 
its completion as to be such an event in his life, 
that, when his eyes should see it, he would be 
14 



210 THOMAS STABS KING. 

ready to sing the Nunc dimittis of Simeon. 
He wrote to Kandolph Ever, "If this project, 
which is my own, goes through smoothly, I 
shall have done my work here : " to his mother, 
" I call it my monument ; and I hope it will 
be paid for, as I should hate to have my monu- 
ment mortgaged or sold under the hammer : " 
to his sister Angela, "As soon as it is paid 
for, I shall think that my mission is accom- 
plished in California, and shall be ready to 
surrender the driver's seat, the reins, the horses, 
and the carriage, to a new and stronger arm :" 
to S. P. Dewey, " When all is done, I shall 
be ready to drop into my grave. I fear that 
it is not written in the book of Providence, 
that I shall visit Europe." The presentiment 
is remarkable. That winch was nourishing his 

o 

spirit was consuming its earthly casket. He 
was in reality saying, — 

" That time of year thou mayst in me behold. 
When yellow leaves, or none, or few. do hang 
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold; 
Bare, rained choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. 
In me thou seest the twilight of such day, 
As after sunset fadeth in the west. 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 211 

Which by and by black Night doth take away; 
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. 
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire 
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie ; 
As the death-bed whereon it must expire, 
Consumed with that which it was nourished fo/." * 

The new church was substantially finished 
by Christmas. Mr. King writes of it to his 
mother, j- "It is the most beautiful building in 
the interior, for ordinary congregational worship, 
that I ever saw. There are two hundred and 
eighteen pews in it ; and we cannot now supply 
the demand for seats. It will hold nearly fifteen 
hundred persons. The building is lighted from 

* The Chairman of the Parish Committee, in writing of his 
labors in behalf of the new church, says, " How well he suc- 
ceeded for us, let this magnificent edifice, so beautiful, so tasteful, 
so grand, attest. What was the result to himself, let that grave 
answer. For I solemnly believe, that to his devoted care and 
anxiety and toil, in the erection of this building, may be attributed 
much of that physical debility which undermined his constitu- 
tion, and shortened his days. He gave us the church with his 
life." — Address, p. 13. 

f I am indebted to Mrs. Susan M. King, Mr. King's mother; 
his aunt, Miss Sarah E. Starr, the thorough teacher of the Ger- 
man language; his sister, Miss Angela King, whose beautiful 
readings are so acceptable to the public, — for files of letters of 
Mr. King from an early date, from which citations have been 
made in these pages. 



212 THOMAS STARE KING. 

the ceiling chiefly, through windows set in 
superb panels. Each window contains the 
figure of a Greek cross in colors. The pulpit 
wall is divided into three splendid arches, with 
recesses : in the centre one, the pulpit ; at the 
right of the pulpit, the organ and the choir 
seats ; at the left of the pulpit, a baptismal font, 
elaborately carved, with a spire of carved black- 
walnut rising over it thirty feet. The side gal- 
leries end before reaching the pulpit wall ; and 
between the end of the galleries and the pulpit 
arches, on each side, is a magnificent stained- 
glass Gothic window. Over the back of the 
gallery are three other round arches with re- 
cesses. In the centre is a wonderfully noble 
rose window, twenty-one feet in diameter, of 
stained glass ; in the other two, Gothic win- 
dows, also of stained glass. We have a wing- 
building with beautiful parlor-rooms for sewing- 
circles and meetings, and a Sunday-school 
chapel in it that will hold three hundred. 
There is a new organ, built here for the church, 
costing thirty-five hundred dollars in gold. 
That is my gift to the society," It was decided 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 213 

not to sell the pews to individuals, but to pay 
for the building by subscription, and rent them 
annually. They were rented for one year for 
twenty thousand dollars in gold, and the plate 
collections were estimated at five thousand ; 
which would be the largest sum realized in a 
single society from the operation of the volun- 
tary principle in support of religion — which 
may be termed the American principle — there 
is on record. "All our friends," Mr. King 
says, "are very happy, and not a little proud, 
over our success." 

The day of dedication — Sunday, Jan. 10, 
1864 — was a sacred festival to the pastor and 
the society. The church was crowded. The 
order of services consisted of a voluntary ; a 
chant ; three original hymns ; the prayer of 
dedication ; Te Deum ; Scripture lesson ; let- 
ters from Kev. Messrs. Chaney and Alger, Drs. 
Hedge and Dewey; and an address by the 
pastor. The last original hymn, by Mrs. E. 
A. S. Page, was the following: — 

" God ! ere heaven and earth were planned, 
Adoring silence worshipped thee : 



214 THOMAS STARR KING. 

Now the vast universe doth stand 
The temple of thy majesty. 

Its walls are wrought of sapphire bright ; 
Its countless spires are starry flame : 
Suns on.the boundless ether write 
The sovereign beauty of thy name. 

An earthly temple, by thy grace, 
This day we dedicate to thee : 
Deign to make here thy dwelling-place, 
O Thou that fill'st immensity! 

Fold us beneath thy sheltering wings, 
As here we worship at thy shrine : 
Ours be the peace thy presence brings, 
The glory and the praise be thine." 

The service was impressive. " Many eyes" 
Mr. King says, "moistened with my own, as 
gifts were announced and words were read to 
the congregation from Eastern friends, and espe- 
cially from the Hollis-street Church." This 
crowning scene, symbolic of the ripened grain 
of the brave sower, was the complement of a 
morning consecration to a worthy ambition. 
Pastor and society looked forward, with faith as 
well as hope, to a brilliant future of labor for 
the Master's cause and kingdom in their new 
home. Mr. King wrote to the Hollis-street So- 
ciety, " May another year, if I am to live, offer 



FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 215 

me the privilege of thanking you and our 
brothers of your fellowship within the dear old 
church for their and your remembrance and 
love!" 

His letters to the East contain tender expres- 
sions of love for New England, for Massachu- 
setts, for Boston, and for old friends. Califor- 
nia, he said, " was very kind ; but it was not 
New England." Massachusetts was the only 
place for him to live in. " My heart belongs 
to Boston more than to any other city or 
climate ; " and he was homesick for the East. 
In a letter to a former associate in the naval 
office, he refers to his navy-yard life, and sends 
the warmest regards to some w whose faithful- 
ness in past days was not forgotten." His last 
letters are in a cheerful vein. If he had a pre- 
sentiment amounting to conviction of an early 
death, still hope was the ruler of his spirit; 
and, while he was ready to die, he was prepar- 
ing to live. He reflected that his life since 
boyhood had been one of great toil. He had 
looked forward to each year as a season of rest ; 
when there came instead new calls, new re- 



216 THOMAS STABB KING. 

sponsibilities, and new labors. He now hoped 
for a respite from his severe activities. His 
plans for the future embraced a residence in 
Germany for educational purposes ; then a re- 
treat to his old home for quiet academic pur- 
suits ; and then a realization of the ambition 
of his earl j days, — the construction of a work 
on philosophy. Short-sighted man would say, — 

" Are these thy views ? Proceed, illustrious youth ! 
Ap4 Virtue guard thee to the throne of Truth! " 



*~<-*«3®Si 




THE CLOSING SCENE. 




HOMAS STAKE KING looked 
grandly in life as he moved along 
with ease, grace, and greatness. "I 
should be very desirous to do perfectly whatever 
I undertook," he wrote to a friend. Fidelity to 
duty has been termed a characteristic of the Ger- 
manic race. In his life, this is triumphant as a 
ruling principle. It appeared in bud and blos- 
som in the endeavor to do his best as the pupil, 
the shop-boy, the teacher, and the accountant ; 
and it was seen in rich fruit and harvest in the 
pastor and the man. He was true to himself, — 
to his finer and nobler instincts, — to the dig- 
nity of his nature. He was the idol of a hap- 
py home, the centre of a beautiful hospitality, 

[217] 



218 THOMAS STABR KING. 

the light and life of a large religious society; 
and was successful in the great ambition of his 
life, to be a preacher of the liberal gospel. He 
was zealous in the social and intellectual activi- 
ties which are bounded neither by party nor sect, 
but which embrace all in their fold. He was a 
leading spirit in the cause of the soldier. He 
was the foremost citizen of a great State. He 
was the Christian patriot, full of soul -power for 
country. He was a force in the community by 
virtue of the sovereign sign-manual of Ameri- 
can manhood. 

His heart was far away from the field of his 
labor. " Oh that I could fly to Boston ! but 
this is my post of duty," he writes ; and thus 
a sense of duty, impelling him to self-denial 
for Ins work's sake, kept him to his post. 
He was busy with plans for the future ; devis- 
ing new ways to interest and benefit his society, 
and preparing for another campaign into the 
interior of the country in aid of the Sanitary 
Commission. As this soldier of the Cross, 
wearing the breastplate of righteousness, stood 
in the new temple of the Most High, its lines 



THE CLOSING SCENE. 219 

of beauty seemed to be smiles of joy. He 
preached a few Sundays in this noble sanctuary. 
He spoke from the text, " The liberal deviseth 
liberal things ; and by liberal things shall he 
stand." He announced for the next sabbath 
the first of a series of evening vesper-services 
which he had arranged ; and he remarked, in 
view of the preparation he had made, that this 
promised to be the most interesting exercise of 
the day. Man proposes : God disposes. 

Mr. King said, on Friday, Feb. 26, 1864, 
in answer to friendly inquiry in the street, 
that he was unwell, had aching bones, a sore 
throat, and felt like a sponge squeezed dry ; 
and he was uncommonly sad and thoughtful. 
He expressed fear and regret that he might 
not be able to preach on Sunday, and more 
especially on account of the peculiar service 
that had been announced. He went to a so- 
cial meeting of his society, but returned home 
that evening a sick man. He was about the 
house the next day ; though, as evening came 
on, he was too unwell to meet a few friends 
who were expected at tea, and retired to rest. 



220 THOMAS STAEE KIXG. 

At the supper-hour, however, a bridal-party 

came in, who had set their hearts on having 
him perform the ceremony ; when, on being in- 
formed of this, Mr. King, in his characteristic 
spirit of duty and self-denial, rose from the 
bed, came down, and complied with the re- 
quest. Then, exchanging a few pleasantries 
with his friends, slowly and with a tired air he 
went up stairs to his room. He had the diph- 
theria. It was announced on Sunday that he 
was too ill to conduct the services ; which was 
the first intimation to many of his society that 
lie was sick. 

On Monday and Tuesday, medical treatment 
seemed to be successful in overcoming the dis- 
ease : but overwork had exhausted the vital 
energies of his constitution ; and, on "Wednes- 
day, his extreme prostration created alarm. 
On Thursday, dyspnoea, or difficulty of respira- 
tion, supervened. About sunrise on Friday, it 
was too evident that the angel of death was 
near. He had a second attack of dyspnoea. 
His physician, Dr. Echel, before this said that 
he feared his patient could not survive another 



THE CLOSING SCENE. 221 

attack; and, when this occurred, Mr. King 
asked, " What is this ? — is this dyspnoea too ? " 
when Dr. Echel replied that it was. " Can I 
survive it ? " Mr. King asked calmly, looking at 
the doctor ; when Dr. Echel answered that he 
thought he could not. — " How long can I 
live?" Mr. King asked. "Not half an hour." 
was the reply. " Are you sure I cannot live 
longer than that?" Mi*. King asked; when 
the doctor replied, "that he feared he could 
not." * He was now free from suffering, and in 
the full possession of his faculties ; and no vain 
wish or unmanly repining followed this solemn 
conversation. His whole life had been " sus- 
tained and soothed by an unfaltering trust." 
"Not my will, but Thine, be done," had been 
the habitual expression of his recognition of and 
resignation to Divine Providence ; and he calm- 
ly and lovingly proceeded to take the cup which 
his heavenly Father presented. 



* This conversation is given in the San Francisco Bulletin, 
and is tacitly confirmed by a note from Dr. Echel, who requested 
the editor to substitute " dyspnoea " for the word " pneumonia," as 
was first printed. See also Mr. Swain's Address. 



222 THOMAS STARR KING. 

Friends now asked him if he had any tiling 
to say; and he replied, "Yes, a great deal to 
say. I want, first, to make my will." For two 
days, he had not been able to speak in a tone 
above a whisper; but his voice, responding to 
the power of his will, came back, and he spoke 
nearly as loud as ever. He dictated the will 
to his friend Mr. Swain, who sat by the bed- 
side : to which, as each paragraph was read, he 
said, "All right;" and at the end said, "It is 
just as I want it." He then hesitated, and 
said, " Add that all other wills are hereby re- 
voked : you know I have another will in Bos- 
ton." He was now raised in bed ; and, with a 
book for a desk, he affixed with a steady hand 
his signature, " Th : Starr King," thus punctu- 
ating the abbreviation, and putting beneath it a 
curvature. This effort was followed by a few 
minutes of exhaustion ; when smilingly he be- 
gan to bid good-by to friends, who, one after 
the other, went to the bedside. To one he 
said, " Good-by, colonel ! " and, taking him 
with both hands, added, " God bless you ! " 
" Good-by, Sarah ! " he said to a domestic : " I 



THE CLOSING SCENE. 223 

thank you for all you have done for us." To 
the nurse he said, " Good-by, Kathleen ! — 
take good care of Fretzie." He whispered to 
his wife, " Be sure and tell Dr. Echel, I think 
he has done every thing a human agent could 
do." And he said to her, "Do not weep for 
me. I know it is all right. I wish I could 
make you feel so. I wish I could describe my 
feelings. It is strange ! I feel all the privi- 
leges and greatness of the future." He ex- 
pressed his wishes as to his manuscripts, and 
spoke freely of family affairs. " I see," he said 
to another, "a great future before me. It 
already looks grand, beautiful. I am passing 
away fast. My feelings are strange." His 
wife asked if he had any special message to his 
friends at home. "Tell them," he said, "I 
went lovingly, trustfully, peacefully." In a 
few moments, he said, "To-day is the 4th of 
March : sad news will go over the wires to- 
day." The chairman of his parish committee 
now approached his bedside ; and he said, 
" Good-by, Swain ! — keep my memory green. 
I wish you to say to my society, that it is my 



224: THOMAS STARR KIXG. 

earnest desire that they pay the debt upon the 
church, and not leave the burden to be carried 
by my successor. I had rather they would do 
this than erect a tombstone at my grave. Let 
the church free of debt be my monument : I 
want no better. Tell them these were my last 
words, and say good-by to all of them for 
me." 

For a moment he was quiet, and seemed to 
be sleeping. " Are you happy ? " he was asked ; 
when, turning his head, and looking at the 
questioner with bright, full eyes, he gave the 
sublime answer, "Yes, happy, eesigxed, 
teusteul." He now calmly and thoughtfully 
repeated the twenty-third Psalm, " The Lord is 
my shepherd ; " and as he went through, with 
emphasis, the verse, "Yea, though I walk 
through the valley of the shadow of death," 
his voice thrilled with emotion ; and he raised 
Lis eye and finger, as if in the pidpit, at the 
words, "I will fear no evil; for Thou art with 
me ; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." 
His little son was now brought to the bedside. 
"Dear little fellow! he's a beautiful boy," he 



THE CLOSING SCENE. 225 

said ; and he kissed his hand to the child as the 
nurse carried him away in her arms. He now 
breathed slower and slower ; closed his eyes ; 
and, without a struggle or a pang, the spirit 
which reached out in childhood's prayer passed 
on to its rest in the bosom of the Infinite. 
Witnesses of the solemn scene remark, that no 
pen, no tongue, not even an angel's, can de- * 
scribe the sublimity of this triumphant death. 

"A great and good and generous man is 
dead," are the simple words of the journals in 
relating the scene and the event. Their mourn- 
ing columns, their generous tributes, their rec- 
ord of what was said and done in memory of 
the departed, is a faithful, and will be an endur- 
ing mirror, reflecting the general and deep 
sorrow, the passion, and the pathos of the pub- 
lic grief. Before this mysterious open grave, 
party names were powerless to divide the 
Christian world ; and from every organization 
the expression was spontaneous, full, and 
noble. The like is only seen when the public 
benefactor passes on to live and to speak as an 
immortal. 

15 



226 THOMAS STARR KINO. 

The day appointed for the funeral service 
(Sunday, the 6th of March) dawned bright and 
beautiful. The sun shone in unclouded splen- 
dor. The surface of the Bay of San Francisco 
was unstirred. The breeze was hardly suffi- 
cient to ruffle the innumerable flags which 
hung at half-mast all over the city and the 
shipping in the harbor. Though Nature was 
thus smiling, the faces of the people wore the 
sad expression there is in the time of calamity. 
The remains of the deceased pastor were lying 
in state on the altar at which he had ministered, 
with a chaplet of spring violets on his breast, 
and in the midst of the rarest flowers which 
loving hands could gather. The national flag, 
dressed with crape, draped the pulpit, and hung 
in folds above the casket. Wreaths of Egyptian 
lilies, waxen- white, hung in festoons around the 
church. For three hours, — from nine o'clock 
until twelve, when the doors of the church were 
closed, — a continuous stream of people passed 
round the aisles to look for the last time on 
the deceased, on whose countenance a smile 
still lingered. 



THE CLOSING SCENE. 227 

Though the desire was generally expressed 
by societies and the people to join in a testi- 
monial of respect, there was no procession. 
At the afternoon hour fixed for the burial, 
every stand-point was taken in the streets, 
windows, and balconies, from which a glimpse 
could be obtained of the church ; and some of 
the adjacent roofs were covered with people.* 
The members of the Unitarian Society, the 
state and city officials, and the friends, passed 
through a military guard to the side-door, and 
thence into the church. When the main entrance 
was thrown open, the spacious building was 
filled to its utmost capacity. The mass of 
people outside stood uncovered during the cere- 
monies. The ritual of the Masonic order was 
then repeated ; its chaplain, Rev. Alfred B. 
Kittredge, reading the twenty-third Psalm. As 
minute-guns were fired by the direction of the 
national authorities, and as the organ sounded a 
requiem, and the choir chanted the chorus, the 

* I am indebted to Mr. William F. Stevens of San Francisco 
for copies of the journals of that city which contain accounts of 
the death and funeral of Mr. King. 



228 THOMAS STAJRB KINO. 

body, .wrapped in the national flag, was lowered 
into the vault beneath the altar by the brethren 
of the craft. A San Francisco journal says, 
" When the tomb was closed, the throng bes;an 
to disperse from the resting-place of one who 
was perhaps more deeply beloved by a vast 
majority of our people than any other who has 
lived and toiled and died among us." Only the 
language of the place and the time can do justice 
to the love and gratitude that strewed flowers on 
this grave. M He sleeps the sleep of the just," 
it was said ; " but his name is indelibly written 
upon the State of his adoption, — not in letters 
of gold, to be blent and lost with ten thousand 
other names ; not in characters of what he 
brought out of it, but of what he brought into 
it, planted in it, and made to spring up an eter- 
nal autograph. Farewell to thee in bodily 
form, great and gentle soul ! Farewell to thee, 
most eloquent, most pure of heart, most joyous 
of nature ! We will not mourn for thee as 
lost : — 

We only know that thor hast gone 

From God's own hand to God's own hand."' 



THE CLOSING SCENE. 229 

On the evening of this burial scene on the 
Pacific shore, the Charlestown Society held a 
commemorative service, which was announced 
when the telegraph communicated the intelli- 
gence of the death of their former pastor. 
The meeting was large, attentive, and sympa- 
thizing. On the spot where the manly struggle 
for culture began, and the ambition to be the 
Christian minister grew, learned and eloquent 
divines paid touching tributes to the beautiful 
life which had received its crowning. In the 
congregation were the companions of his boy- 
hood, his former pupils, his early friends and 
parishioners, who saw the purity and brilliancy 
of his youth, and felt the magnetic power of his 
manhood ; and the deep feeling evinced, as they 
listened to the exercises, the prayer and speech 
and dirge and written word, attested the hold 
which he retained on their affection.* It was 

* The church in Charlestown in which Mr. King preached 
was then undergoing repairs; and the use of the Harvard Church 
(Unitarian) was promptly tendered by Kev. Dr. Ellis, who is the 
pastor of this society. Addresses were made by Rev. Dr. Ellis, 
Rev. Charles H. Leonard, Rev. Dr. Bartol, Rev. Dr. Hedge, and 
Rev. Thomas B. Thayer. The entire service gave uncommon 
satisfaction to the friends of Mr. King. 



230 THOMAS STARR KING. 

an appropriate Christian service, done in love, 
and at nearly the hour when all that was mortal 
of Thomas Starr King was committed to the 
earth. 

At the time of this testimonial, little more 
was known than that the pastor was dead, and 
that he was "happy to go." In a month, full 
accounts were received of the event. Then the 
Hollis-street Society held a similar memorial 
service.* Their church was crowded. The 
vesture in which the deceased had preached lay 
on the pulpit ; on which, and on the font in 
front, were wreaths of flowers. The choir chant- 
ed the Psalm which the dying pastor repeated ; 
selections of Scripture were read ; prayer was 

* The service at Hollis Street was on Sunday evening, April 
3, 1864. The exercises were similar to those in Charlestown, 
consisting of reading selections of Scripture, and prayer, by the 
pastor, Rev. Mr. Chaney; singing by the choir; and elaborate 
addresses by Rev. Edward E. Hale, Edwin P. Whipple, and 
Rev. Dr. Chapin. 

The "Evening Transcript" of April 4, 1864, contains a full 
report of the beautiful addresses made on this occasion. Its 
editor, Daniel H. Haskell, Esq., was a warm friend of Mr. 
King ; and I am indebted to his courtesy for the use of a scrap- 
book containing Mr. King's letters to this journal, and other 
favors. 



THE CLOSING SCENE. 231 

offered ; and tributes were uttered in calm, well- 
chosen, and beautiful words. The service was 
simple and impressive. " The large assembly 
separated, feeling that the tributes to the de- 
parted had been strictly just ; fitly commemo- 
rating his commanding and manly career, and 
also those traits of his character which mark 
the inner life of the Christian. 

' Let the light 
Stream on his deeds of love, that shunned the sight 
Of all but Heaven, and in the book of Fame 
The glorious record of his virtues write, 
And hold it up to men, and bid them claim 
A palm like his, and catch from him the hallowed flame.' " 




APPENDIX. 




APPENDIX. 



LETTEK OF MR. JOSHUA BATES ON MR. KING'S 
SCHOOL -DAYS. 

Richard Frothingham, Esq. 

Dear Sir, — In a recent conversation relating 
to our mutual friend, the late Rev. T- Starr King, 
you requested me to furnish you with some reminis- 
cences of the school-days of that most remarkable 
and gifted man. I most cheerfully comply, not only 
from my sincere love of the man, but also from the 
consideration that some impressions I may commu- 
nicate will be an incentive to the young to imitate, 
at least in some degree, his virtues ; and to be 
cheered on to duty by the example of a life of 
such singular purity and simplicity, activity and 
usefulness. 

I well remember the first entrance of that inter- 
esting boy, T. Starr King, to the school under my 

I 235 J 



236 THOMAS STARR KIXG. 

charge : his gentleness of manner, his beaming 
eye, his expressive face, his whole bearing and de- 
meanor, come up with all their freshness in delightful 
remembrance. He immediately impressed me as a 
lad of uncommon promise ; and so soon did he give 
evidence of superior endowments, that I at once took 
the liveliest interest in his success. I soon found 
that his mind grasped and comprehended with won- 
derful acumen every subject presented to his con- 
sideration. As a scholar, young as he was, he took 
the foremost rank in a class of lads remarkable for 
talent, and many of w T hom have in later years held 
important positions in civil and political life. 

His recitations in the English department were 
remarkably clear and methodical ; showing such a 
grasp of mind in expression of thought, as at once 
conveyed the impression of maturity in mental ac- 
quisition far beyond his years. 

In the classics he excelled. For accuracy of 
translation and beauty of diction, I have never known 
his superior in the schoolroom. His confidence, his 
self-possession, sweetness of voice, and beauty in 
translating, always gave a charm and freshness to 
his lessons. Often, as I remember his recitations in 
Cicero and Virgil, have I called to mind a remark 
made by my late venerated father, in speaking of 
the celebrated Buckminster, his college classmate, 
— that, on the morning of examination for admission 



APPENDIX. 237 

to Harvard College, young Buckminster, a lad of 
thirteen years, arose for his examination ; and with 
such freedom of translation, beauty of language, 
richness in intonation of voice, accomplished his 
allotted task, that professor and pupils were com- 
pletely entranced in wonder and delight. 

In composition, I think I can truthfully say, I 
never had a pupil his equal ; one so systematic and 
methodical in logical conclusions, in vigor of thought, 
and choice selection of language for the illustra- 
tion of any subject given out for his investigation. 
Among the many themes assigned to him on differ- 
ent occasions, I well remember one on the " Character 
of Washington," first written in English, and then 
transposed into Latin, when he was only about thir- 
teen years of age. So favorably did this impress me, 
that I took occasion to hand it to two distinguished 
scholars for perusal ; both of whom pronounced it a 
remarkable production for one so young. 

His declamations were always given with much 
accuracy, force of expression, sweetness and clear- 
ness in articulation, and in an impressive and grace- 
ful manner. Many, in later years, who have heard 
him in the lecture - room and the pulpit, have 
noticed and been delighted with that eloquence in 
matter, and style of delivery, which so often gave 
such peculiar charm and fascination to all his dec- 
lamatory exercises in the schoolroom. 



238 THOMAS STARR KING. 

The chief and distinguishing characteristic, how- 
ever, of his school-life, consisted in his sincerity, 
purity of heart, honesty of purpose, and uniformly 
gentlemanly deportment. I can call to remem- 
brance no act or word in his school-days to cen- 
sure or disapprove. Always cheerful, industrious, 
and conscientious, he left no duty unperformed, but 
lived up to all the requirements of the schoolroom 
with the most scrupulous exactness. I always felt 
that I had at least one pupil whose whole influence 
was on the side of nobleness, justice, and truth ; and 
whose example in all respects, by the wayside, on 
the playground, and in the schoolroom, was exerted 
in sustaining and upholding wise and judicious regu- 
lations ; which to every teacher is a source of un- 
mingled pleasure. Dr. Arnold, the late celebrated 
teacher of the Rugby School, said, that, when his 
pupils went with him in heart and influence, there was 
no post in England he would prefer to the one he 
occupied. If our departed friend had been a mem- 
ber of his distinguished school, I venture nothing in 
asserting that no one of his pupils would have had 
a firmer place in his affections, if from no other con- 
sideration than this, — that he would have been al- 
ways found foremost in conscientiously doing all in 
his power to exert an influence in sustaining, in letter 
and spirit, the regulations of the schoolroom, and the 
requirements of the teacher ; and, in his in and out 



APPENDIX. 239 

door example, always illustrating in word and deed 
whatsoever things are pure, lovely, honest, and of 
good report. 

After Mr. King closed his connection with school, 
the pleasant relations that had always existed be- 
tween us, as teacher and pupil, continued in all their 
freshness and confidence. We often met in public 
and private, and always with mutual pleasure. His 
course of study, his present pursuits, and his plans 
for future life, were explained and expressed with 
that frankness and simplicity which was a chief char- 
acteristic of his earnest and confiding nature. A 
short time after his settlement over the Hollis-street 
Church, in Boston, he was appointed chairman of the 
committee on the school over which I now preside. 
His visits were frequent, pleasant, and profitable to 
all concerned. I can never forget the lively interest 
he always manifested in every thing pertaining to 
the best welfare of the school ; and I have no doubt 
many of my former pupils remember with much 
interest and profit the tender and soul-stirring ap- 
peals he so touchingly made in his most welcome 
visits, on the importance of appreciating their many 
privileges, and faithfully performing all school-duties, 
so that they might, in the future, enter upon the 
active duties of life, Christian citizens, men pure in 
heart, strong in mind, healthy in body, obedient sub- 
jects, wise rulers. 



240 THOMAS STARR KING. 

The life of Mr. King, from early youth to the 
grave, was always sincere, pure, enthusiastic. His 
earnest nature, his glorious aspirations, his love of 
the true and the beautiful, his honesty of heart in 
all he said and did, gave a peculiar charm to his 
eventful life. He constantly exemplified in all he 
did that principle and moral thoughtfulness were the 
controlling motives of action. 

He wielded, at all times and under all circumstan- 
ces, a moral power, and maintained and ever exhib- 
ited a force of character, a determination to carry 
out principles, a consecration to his work, a com- 
plete abandonment of self in the discharge of duty, 
which convinced every one of the uprightness and 
purity of his intentions. The true humility and the 
unaffected simplicity of a life of such unresting dili- 
gence, gave a daily and living enforcement to the 
truth, that "life is real, life is earnest." 

The emanation from his example permeated the 
atmosphere around him ; and others could not help 
being invigorated with the belief that they, in some 
measure, should go and do likewise. His name 
will ever be fragrant in our memory ; and his spirit, 
grateful as the breath of morning, will perpetuate 
his fame and influence. Called thus suddenly and 
young from scenes of influence and activity, leaving 
an aching void in many a heart, we can all, in sub- 
mission and trust, most truthfully say of our departed 



</ 



APPENDIX. 241 

friend, that " that life was long which answered life's 
great ends." 

I am yours most truly, 

Joshua Bates. 

Boston, April 15, 1864. 



n. 

LETTER OF PROFESSOR TWEED. 

College Hill, April 26, 1864. 
Mr. Frothingham. 

Dear Sir, — I well remember going to Medford, 
on the 4th of July, 1845, to hear the oration to be 
given by Mr. King, or Starr, as we all called him. 
It was a beautiful day, and the large Unitarian 
church was well filled. Rev. C. Stetson and Dr. 
Ballou went into the desk with the orator. After 
the preliminary exercises, they came down, and occu- 
pied a pew in front of the pulpit. Dr. Ballou was 
evidently not quite at ease. He knew that the audi- 
ence contained many discriminating and critical 
minds not particularly tolerant of showy rhetoric, 
if it lacked the essential requisites of just and vigor- 
ous thought ; and I think he had not yet witnessed 
any of Starr's public performances. The doctor's 
accustomed caution manifested itself in every line 
16 



2U THOMAS STARR KING. 

of his tell-tale face. His compressed lips and con- 
tracted brow showed that he distrusted, or feared at 
least, the ability of his young friend to meet the 
demands of his audience. 

Not so, however, with Starr. With that quiet 
self-possession which all who ever heard him must 
have noticed, and which was equally removed from 
an unmanly diffidence and an offensive assurance, he 
began. Soon came some of those crystallized state- 
ments sparkling with all the tints of the rainbow, 
for which he was so remarkable. Mr. Stetson, who 
never could enjoy a good thing alone, turned to Dr. 
Ballou and others, nodding approval ; when another 
and another grand thought or splendid image, uttered 
in those rich tones which all will remember, made 
such constant calls upon his admiration, that he 
seemed likely to share about equally the attention of 
those near him, with the orator. He could not sit still, 
and took no pains to, but manifested the most unequi- 
vocal symptoms of delight. Dr. Ballou, less demon- 
strative, though probably not less pleased, gradually 
relaxed the tension of his muscles, at first expressing 
a quiet satisfaction, then delight, then admiration. 
Those only who were intimately acquainted with the 
doctor can have any adequate idea of the breadth 
and compass of expression in his serene countenance. 

Starr's sensitive nature interpreted, as by instinct, 
every shade of feeling; and, as he told me after- 



APPENDIX. 243 

wards, " when the doctor's face was all aglow with 
satisfaction, he knew it was all right." 

As soon as the oration was completed, Mr. Stetson 
stepped into the desk, and, pressing the young ora- 
tor's hand, said, in a whisper, " it was like Charles 
Lamb's roast pig, — good throughout, no part better 
or worse than another/' 

I may add that Mr. Stetson and Dr. Ballou were 
the true exponents of the audience. It was a com- 
plete success. 

Yours truly, 

B. F. Tweed. 



III. 



MR. KING'S LETTER RESIGNING THE PASTORSHIP 
OF THE HOLLIS-STREET SOCIETY. 

San Francisco, November 25, 1861. 

Messrs. Warren Sawyer, Thomas Bancroft, and Na- 
thaniel Harris, Standing Committee of Hollis - street 
Parish. 

I did not receive your very admirable letter, 
representing the condition and interests of the 
Hollis - street parish, until a day or two since, — 
one month after it was mailed in Boston. There is 
now no pony express by which this reply can be 
sent to you. 



244 THOMAS STARR KINO. 

With great regret I have read the account of 
losses which the parish has sustained in its material 
affairs. And yet I must congratulate you, that after 
so many months of war and disaster, and with such 
a noble account of services rendered to the country 
and to beneficent enterprises, you commenced a new 
financial year, not only free from debt, but with money 
in the treasury. There has been systematic and 
efficient labor in behalf of the interests of the socie- 
ty, and for Christian objects during the year, which 
calls for the tribute of admiration and gratitude. 

To your inquiries, very kindly and delicately made, 
as to the probabilities of my return, let me answer 
you as frankly as possible. 

At no moment of my residence here has my heart 
wavered in its allegiance to New England and Bos- 
ton. The ties have strengthened, or rather ab- 
sence and distance have shown me how much of a 
New-Englander I am. No man, I believe, could 
have gone from your city less fitted to be an emi- 
grant to a life so different and a coast so far, than I. 
And constant and responsible labor, attended as men 
sometimes assure me with valuable and cheering 
results, has not been able to alienate my interests 
from you, or to make the prospect of a permanent 
abode here — grand as this State is, and as its 
future must be — any more inviting. 

But it seemed to me to be a duty to come here. I 



APPENDIX. 245 

believe that it was. I cannot regret my removal. 
And, in spite of my inclination, I believe that it is 
my duty to stay. 

These are military times. The laws of enlist- 
ment, and the commands from headquarters, over- 
ride all private inclinations and will. When I see 
what still remains to be done here, — duties which 
a year ago could not have been dreamed of, — and 
what disasters would be threatened if I should 
decide to go next April, I dare not yield to my 
impulses, and let my desire to be again with old 
friends, and in the home of my heart, dictate my 
decision. If I could say, that, at the end of my 
second year of absence, I should return to Boston, 
it would give me more pleasure than any of you 
could experience. But I dare not say so. And 
although I am under no pledge whatever, and have 
not been, to remain here an hour beyond next April, 
I see that it would be wrong to leave so soon. 

If this, brethren and friends, is a disappointment 
to any of you, remember that it is so to me more than 
to any of you. If I could look forward to years of 
health and service as your minister, with a furnished 
mind and a brain refreshed, I assure you that it would 
give me deep and thorough joy. 

But as I must stay in this State one year longer 
at least, and as the shadows lie oyer the path beyond 
that time, and as I cannot tell if then, should I live, 



246 THOMAS STARR KING. 

my overworked mind and frame will be fit for con- 
tinued service with you or anywhere, I must reluc- 
tantly but unavoidably surrender into your hands 
all that is left of the trust that has bound me to 
your noble pulpit and your nobler band. 

It is not for me now, my dear friends, to urge you 
to concentrate your zeal and efforts in support of 
the church for which it was my privilege to labor 
with you during many years. When a regiment is 
thinned in battle, the officers and privates that remain 
are none the less devoted to its honor and its colors, 
especially if it holds a position on the field of great 
importance in the general conflict ; and, if it has a 
historic renown, its tattered flag is then dearer than 
the bright stripes and clean stars were when the 
ranks were full. But it is not for me now to show 
you what a powerful nucleus you have for a strong 
working body in Boston, nor to urge you to begin 
with a good heart to seek for a minister to unite 
his fortunes with you, while you have so many work- 
ing members, and are free from debt. 

Words that refer to duty and conscience are out 
of place from my pen now. And I cannot heartily 
use them. They are too cold. It is for me, as I 
recall the scenes which nearly twelve years of labor 
with you have left in my memory, to thank God for 
my association with you, and to ask pardon for re- 
missness in service. I close the record with pain, 



APPENDIX. 247 

when I think of the friends from whom I must part 
as parishioners. I close it with something like satis- 
faction, when I think that now you are at full liberty 
to obtain a minister who shall be able to serve you 
more faithfully than I have done. 

Never again in life can I expect to be associated 
in parochial fellowship so honorable, satisfactory, 
and precious. But I bow to the voice that bids me 
remain in a field so distant from my heart's choice. 
And I invoke for all of you, and for your families, 
the favor and protection of Him who is our coun- 
try's God and hope, and the defender of all earnest 
and trusting toil; and, with gratitude that will 
never fail for all your kindness and fidelity, I am, 
in sadness and with affection, 

Your friend, 

Ths. Starr King. 




Boston : Printed by John Wilson & Son. 



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